Circus
by SNicole25
Summary: When someone dies and is reborn, especially reborn into a fictional world, one would assume that their first reaction would be to change the world around them to their liking. I'm here to tell you that what I did was, in fact, the exact opposite. I'm the girl who went out of her way to change absolutely nothing. Why? Because fate chose wrong. I'm not a hero. SI
1. Prologue

_**a/n: I do not own Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Prologue:

I'd like to say that I'd died in a flashy, dramatic way; but unfortunately that's not true. There were no fiery explosions or head on collisions, no terrorist bombings or botched kidnappings. In reality I died in a boring, it could happen to anyone kind of way. It only took a broken pipe to kill me; it was gas that lulled me into that final sleep.

I was alone that night, (thank God) house sitting for my parents while they enjoyed a night out. My siblings were all off to college and the animals had already been let outside. Well not _all _of the animals, we had a goldfish in his bowl on the kitchen counter. Poor Bubbles; who would have guessed that we'd share our end?

Like I said earlier, the actual dying process was pretty dull. One minute I was there, sitting in my bed registering a strange smell, and then, faster than I could blink, I just _wasn't_. I was suddenly not in my room anymore, though I was also not anywhere I'd expected to go either.

My warm blankets had melted into constricting flesh and blood, the very air had morphed into heavy fluids. It had taken awhile to truly realize what was happening, but when I _had _understood I had been disgusted. Of course it had been only a matter of time before the walls had tightened and launched me forward; onward with a veritable slippery slide's worth of those fluids.

That was when my disgust had all but disappeared, it was only horror that I felt then.

What had waited for me at the end of that tunnel was something I'd had the pleasure of not remembering the first time around, my wet, sloppy, and disgusting birth. Even now, years after this experience, I shudder at the memory.

If I hadn't been in a similar situation to a watermelon shoved down a straw, I think I would have thrown up back then. _That _would've been an interesting experience for my mother.

I doubt I was the picture perfect child when those horrible walls threw me out into the world; it was a birth after all, not one of those ridiculously clean movie scenes. Like every other child on the planet I came out bloody and screaming, because even though I possessed an adult mind, I will freely admit that birth _hurt._

It was strangely dark the day I had been born, even to my blurry baby eyes. At the time it confused me, especially when my very first memory was that of a little boy, desperately trying to quiet me. I hadn't understood it, babies were meant to cry, it was a sign that they were healthy; why did he look so afraid? That look, that fear, was on every face I saw that first day, from the boy's to my mothers, to a horribly tired man I could only assume was my father. It was a day that stretched until it covered months, years.

It was a sad day when a child couldn't laugh, couldn't cry, had to play in silence. My brother, the boy who had quieted me on the first day, tried to make it fun but I could see the fear in his eyes. It was even worse when there _was_ noise, because those were the days when scary men in masks swooped in and scattered the hiding masses like pigeons in a park. Panic, people fleeing in every direction, some falling under stomping feet and flashes of green light; those nights haunt me still, I hear the screams in my nightmares.

When the men had left and the survivors regrouped, we'd troop as one to the nearest barn or cave, another place of shelter that could only last so long.

There were hundreds of us, scavenging in the backs of fields at night and cowering in our dark place during the day. There were days when some of us disappeared hours before the rest of us would get up for the night, before stumbling in with horrible bruises ages after we had returned. It was confusing for me, a mystery that I would have loved to have solved, but you must remember that I was a child, a baby, I couldn't have done anything even if I had wanted to.

Besides, there was another mystery that did solve itself eventually, the mystery of how I had gone from falling asleep in a gas leak to being born in a barn (as that is where I had discovered we'd been). Well, no actually that's a lie too; the mystery I solved was not how I got there so much as it was _where_ I had ended up.

For about 6 months after my 2nd birthday a man burst into our newest barn, throwing showers of light down on all of our cringing forms. "Get up!" He had cried, running straight to my father and hauling him to his feet. "The dark lord is dead! Hail Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived!"

Now that I think back on it, it actually made sense; the hiding, the scavenging, the masked men, the fear. I had been born into a group of people fleeing from a serial killer, afraid that at any moment their loved ones would be killed. I could see why they had rejoiced and cheered at the news; I could understand why so many faces lit up with relief.

Still, it probably seemed rather strange for the leader's two year old daughter to choose that moment to collapse, to faint just when the celebrations were starting.

They blamed it on the excitement, but after that I was regarded as a weak willed child who was incredibly fragile and vulnerable. This was probably the most annoying aspect of my new life; I hated being treated like I would break at the drop of a hat.

My new life did get easier after that though, but at the same time it also got stranger. It turned out that my family was a magical circus, famous in both the magical and muggle worlds for making real magic seem like the fake muggle kind. During the war many of us had been hunted because of our reliance on muggle business, and like animals we had abandoned our tents and fled in terror.

I had been born not long after that, torn out of my old life to make a new one here in this world. Julia Cynthia Whitman, that was my name here. I was just the daughter of a harassed ringleader who was fortunate enough to be born only a few years before a time of peace.

I wondered what their reaction would be if they could only know what I knew, the precious information I had leisurely read in another life. Just the notion made me cringe; I would never be left alone if they found out who I was. The Ministry (who hated my family because of how close we came to revealing magic to muggles but could never seem to find enough evidence to shut us down) would probably react to me in the same way they eventually reacted to Harry.

They'd call me a liar and a lunatic in front of the entire wizarding community; they would shut down the circus on the grounds that it was making me unstable. Then later, when Voldemort rose again, they would suddenly become my best buddy as they pleaded for the future.

There was another side to consider too, as one should never forget that the book had _two _sides, not just one. The Death Eaters, the masked men. They, I had no doubt, would kill for the stuff I knew, and of course by 'kill' I am speaking quite literally. Rather than just shut them down, my entire family would be eliminated if I didn't cooperate, and, after I had told them what they wanted to know, I would be killed as well simply for knowing too much.

They both sounded like amazing options, (heavy, heavy sarcasm here), but I'd rather take my chances with staying quiet. Besides, who knew? Maybe if I blabbed about what I knew something in the universe would unravel and everyone would die anyway.

That's exactly why when I _did _end up in Hogwarts, (It was to be expected, I was born into a wizarding family and couldn't exactly say I didn't want to go because I had to avoid Harry Potter. I mean come on, everyone already thought I was weird.) and when I _did _sit with the sorting hat on my head; I told it firmly that I wanted to be placed in Hufflepuff.

This was because, as far as I could tell and excluding Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff was the least important of all the houses. The hat actually didn't argue that much, though it did tell me I was a bit too crudely observant to fit in without a bit of effort. I was welcomed to my new house with much cheer just like everyone else (I took great lengths to _not _sit next to Cedric, much to his confusion), and my life at Hogwarts continued without a hitch.

I was basically a wallflower, keeping my grades at average and gathering only casual friends. I paid no mind to anyone who had played a part (no matter how brief) in the books I had once loved so much. If they talked to me, I tried my best to keep the conversations to a minimal.

The Weasley twins (who were in my year) and the famous Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff were pretty much all my original 'must avoid' list covered. However time did go on and eventually Harry Potter and his friends did come to Hogwarts. Their names, along with many others, were added to the growing parchment.

Living through the first few years may sound easy but trust me when I say that it most definitely was _not. _Once my third year rolled around and the famous Harry Potter became a Gryffindor, well, let's just say that things started to become more interesting.

For starters, I _knew_ what Quirrell was, and he was one of those that I literally _couldn't _avoid. He was my teacher! I was legally required to spend hours at a time with the guy! It made me jumpy and nervous, enough so that rumors even began to spread. I told everybody that his turban just creeped me out, but I'm not entirely sure they believed me.

The next year was better, though Lockhart annoyed the hell out of me. I was a little bit nervous of being petrified to tell the truth (the circus kind of made me a blood traitor), but thankfully the worst part of that year was nothing more than a detention signing autographs with Lockhart. I had 'accidentally' practiced my water to wine spell on his hair gel.

In my fifth year I of course added Sirius Black to my list and tried my best to avoid certain places in Hogsmeade. Even so, that year still turned out to be harder than I thought. The reason behind that? Dementors, plain and simple, and more specifically? The memories they forced me to relive.

As the most horrific thing I had experienced up until that point was my own birth, not to mention those nights of chaos and panic, you could probably guess why I hated having the dementors around.

I didn't go to the Quidditch Cup that summer, though both my father and brother tried their very hardest to convince me otherwise. This, along with a few other events (such as Diagon Alley when the Potter gang was there), was just another thing I just had to avoid. It was a shame, I actually liked Quidditch, I just hadn't tried out because of how tied in it was to the books.

If only I could have gone to the Quidditch Cup without witnessing a Death Eater attack. As it was, I listened on the radio.

My life in the Harry Potter world actually wasn't all that bad. All I had to do was stay out of the way and try to not attract unnecessary attention. The people I avoided didn't seek me out or generally notice me at all. Something that was fine by me. I planned to live a peaceful existence, living out my days until I could discover why I had ended up here in the first place.

It would have all been just fine if the ones on my 'must avoid' list had not suddenly decided they didn't like their lot in life, had not suddenly made it impossible _not _to notice them.

The problem? Well, starting in the beginning of my sixth year, that's exactly what they did. So much for not getting involved.


	2. Chapter 1

_**a/n: I do not own Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Leaves floated around me in a sort of soft maelstrom, the green flurry tinted with occasional splotches of orange and red. I sighed contentedly, leaning back against the rock I lay on so as to catch the full extent of the sun's rays.

My socks and shoes were strewn absent-mindedly to my side, my bare feet already dangling off and into the cool lake water below. It was serene, relaxing and (best of all in my opinion) completely peaceful. I smiled a wide, lazy smile and closed my eyes lethargically. It was my free lesson, I reasoned, no one would mind if I drifted off for a bit.

"Oi! You over there!"

I cracked an eye open ruefully, only to snap it right back shut when I saw who was coming my way. _Crap! It's Cedric!_ _Maybe he'll go away if I ignore him._

In a heartbeat I had flipped myself completely in the other direction, kicking up a bit of water as I curled into a ball and screwed my eyes shut. I'm pretty sure he saw all of this (he wasn't _that _far away), but I was still hoping he'd either buy the sleeping routine or get the hint and go away.

No such luck, the sound of footsteps got louder and louder until they stopped completely. It wasn't long after that that he began to laugh, and not one of those polite chuckles either, but the kind of laugh that made you _know _that they were making fun of you. My fake-sleeping face instantly transformed into a scowl.

"You are the _worst _actor I've ever seen!" He let out between breaths, calming down briefly only to burst out obnoxiously a few seconds later.

I opened my eyes grudgingly; I wasn't fooling anyone anyway. "Is there something you wanted?" I asked coolly, sitting up so that I could get a better look at him. To him I probably looked like an indifferent and rude girl, one who had better things to do with her life than talk to him.

Good, if he thought that then maybe he would leave sooner.

"I was just going to warn you about the lake." Cedric replied with an easy yet cheeky smile. "Sometimes first years forget about the giant squid."

I blinked, forgetting my aloof persona as I processed what he had said. Did he just say. . . Did he think. . . Did Cedric Diggory just call me a _first year_? I shot him a glare, only this time it wasn't half-hearted or pretend; it was real. But more than that, it was _icy_. The boy in front of me winced almost instantly; he knew he had said the wrong thing.

"I am _NOT _a first year!" I growled, standing up so that I could poke him in the chest menacingly, an effect that was only scary for the amount of time it took us both to realize that I only came up to his prefects badge. I scowled, he laughed, both for the second time today.

Damn. Not only was I flat as a board but I was short too, no wonder he thought I was eleven.

"You're not?" He asked once he had once more regained the ability to speak in complete sentences (the sad part about this is that he actually sounded surprised). "Really?"

"Yeah," I mumbled, still glaring. "Really," Turning around, I began gathering up my things; doing my best to ignore the guy behind me. He was on the list after all; I couldn't afford to have any more contact with him.

"What are you doing?" Cedric asked curiously, leaning over my shoulder to get a better look.

"Going to the dorms for my nap," I replied curtly, going to move past him but frowning when I saw that he had blocked my way. I looked at him pointedly, "Can you move please?"

"Wait, I didn't catch your name." His expression turned hopeful as he looked at me. I sighed. Why is it that one of the people whom I _didn't _want to speak to, _wouldn't _shut up?

"That's because I didn't tell you." There was a certain weariness to my voice. I was still trying to get past him. "Now can you move? I want to go to my dorm."

"I'll go with you," He replied cheerfully as he wrenched my bag away from me, ignoring my protests. He gave one look at my yellow and black tie and smiled big. "We're both in Hufflepuff right? I need to go to the dorms too."

I stifled a groan, resisting the urge to slap my forehead. "No." I told him as I attempted and failed to get my bag back. "I want to walk alone."

He pouted, shooting me a look that probably would have had any other girl melting where she stood. He probably had had plenty of practice with it, if you considered Cho and the other fan girls that fawned after him. To tell the truth, I kind of half expected him to bat his eyelashes at me. It wouldn't have been too far off from what he was already doing.

"I have an idea," Cedric abandoned his pout once it became clear that it wasn't having the effect he was going for. "How 'bout, if I don't guess your age by the time we get to the barrels, I'll leave you alone?"

I considered for a moment; it was actually a pretty tempting offer considering that he already called me a first year. I gave him a long look and then I smiled, quite slyly if I might add. "Deal," I told him, that smile never wavering, "On one condition."

"Anything." He sounded confident, not wavering even as my smirk grew wider.

"If you don't get it by the time we get there, you have to tap the wrong barrel. And you can't have a shower until the end of the day."

Cedric's smile vanished almost instantly. I almost laughed, even as I knew I was being a bit cruel. From what I knew of Cedric, both from reading and seeing, he viewed his personal image highly. By choosing a punishment that would hurt his ego, I increased the chance that he would come to dislike me. It would, since I highly doubted that he'd guess it, act as an insurance to keep him away from me in the long run.

"Fine," He said firmly, shooting me a stubborn look as he began to march back up to the castle. "But I get to start now. 12."

I made sure to step on his foot hard as I fell into step beside him. (it was on purpose, I mean 12? Really?) "Nope!" I sang, smirking. "Too low!"

We walked in silence as he took the time to think, the guy even going as far as caressing his chin in the classic 'thinker' pose. I couldn't help it; I snickered, if only at how ridiculous he looked.

"13?" He guessed seriously, chuckling when I tripped him in retaliation. "Guess not."

We were at the castle now, so I'm not quite sure if he caught me roll my eyes at him before I slipped inside, though he probably _did_ notice that I didn't hold the door for him. To tell the truth, his guesses were insulting me more than I let on. I mean, just how young did this guy think I was? Sure I was shorter than most people, and yeah I had no chest but that didn't mean I looked like a first year! I had curves dammit!

"14?" Came the second guess as we descended the stairs to the kitchens, getting ever so closer to Cedric's fate.

"You can't just keep guessing in order until you get it." I told him seriously; adding in: "And no, that's not it." when his face temporarily lit up.

"There are not many ages you _can _be at this school." He countered with a chuckle. "Unless you're a teacher." He pretended to peer at me skeptically. "And you're not a teacher. _Are_ you?"

I ignored him, settling instead with answering his first statement (even though he hadn't quite phrased it as a question). "Go with the ages that make sense." I told him before tacking on a "And give me your reasons!" at the end.

"This is too hard, you already said no to the ones that made sense!" He whined, yelping loudly when I 'accidentally' stomped his foot again. His half-hearted glare only lasted seconds before he was all smiles again. "At least give me a hint."

"No."

The barrels were in sight now and my scowl disappeared the moment I saw them. Cedric noticed and adopted a scowl of his own. "Oh come on!" He begged piteously. "I'm going to lose!"

"That's kind of the point." I gloated shamelessly, ecstatic at the prospect of once more avoiding this guy in peace. Of course that _had_ to be the moment that the barrel two from the bottom chose to open (those things are more than large enough to walk through comfortably); sending none other than Kara Jafton flying straight into me.

There was a muffled crash as the girl knocked all three of us to the ground, followed shortly after by my own groan at seeing who it was that had done so.

Kara was a year-mate of mine; infamous for her big feet, big heart and (most unfortunately) her big mouth. She was also one of the few friends I had acquired since coming to Hogwarts. We weren't close, not really, but she knew enough about me to answer any of Cedric's questions comfortably. She also (like most of the girls in my House) had a huge crush on the guy.

Well crap.

"Julia!" Kara exclaimed rather loudly only moments after we all had returned from the floor, her voice alone more than enough for both Cedric and I to wince. "Oh my gosh! I'm _so_ sorry; I can't believe I didn't see you. I was just so late, and McGonagall was so going to kill me! You know how she gets. I mean, you fall asleep in her class one time and the world's on fire! She totally overreac-"

"Kara!" I cried once she had paused enough for me to get a breath in. Years of experience with the girl meant I knew to cut her off before she got too far along. She could talk for _hours_. Well, that and I knew I had to get her moving. She had already placed me in a rather dangerous territory just by saying my name. Cedric was _grinning_, that was never good.

"It's _fine_, Kara. We should have been watching where we were going too. And I know exactly what you mean with McGonagall, she hates me enough for not taking Transfiguration this year. You should probably get going before you're later than you already are."

I meant the last part. Just _what_ had Kara been doing to miss half the lesson before even realizing that she was late?

"Julia?" Cedric slid into the conversation smoothly before I could successfully shoo her away. He, it seemed, must have realized that Kara was probably his best chance in getting information that I would never have told him otherwise. He shot her his best 'perfect guy' smile. "Are you in the same year?"

Kara nearly swooned. In focusing on me, she hadn't realized that I wasn't exactly alone. Now that she had, the Hufflepuff looked both awestruck and thrilled. I wanted to smash my head, or maybe even her head, into a wall. In the span of a single moment Kara had reminded me what people (specifically those in my House) would do if Cedric Diggory, the Superstar of Hufflepuff, so much as glanced their way.

Ridiculous. Bloody Idiotic. At this rate, Kara would probably give him my birthdate and blood type too.

"What about Transfiguration?" I asked feebly. "McGonagall? The wonderfully evil lady who's out to get you for sleeping in class? Does any of that ring a bell?" Like a traitor, Kara blatantly ignored me, all the while smiling sparkles and butterflies at the still smirking Cedric.

"Oh yeah me and Jules go _way _back." She crooned, earning an odd look from me. Never, in all the years that we'd known each other, had she ever called me 'Jules'. Kara was moving closer to Cedric now, edging nearer and nearer in the creepy way that all of his fangirls seemed to move. It was almost sad to watch, like she had been degraded just by being in his presence. Cedric evaded her with a few practiced steps to the side, his perfect smile never slipped.

"Is that so?" He practically purred, still smiling as I watched helplessly. "What year are you two in?"

"Sixth of course!" The traitor cooed happily. She either didn't see or ignored the horror-struck expression slowly creeping upon my face. _Nonononono, Shut Up Kara!_

"And her birthday? "

Kara frowned, clearly not exactly pleased with a question that wasn't about her. She probably would've been jealous if she didn't already know how I had next to no interest in the golden boy. Even if she was, Kara had never been the type to sabotage someone for her own gain, ridiculous crush or not. "I think it's sometime in April, the. . . 7th? Julia's lucky. I don't turn 17 till July."

I admit it, it wasn't figurative this time; I _actually _smacked myself on the forehead.

Cedric turned towards me, still grinning that cursed grin. "You're 16!" He crowed, quickly adding in: "And before you say otherwise, you never said I couldn't ask your friend."

I was speechless, mad (mainly at Kara and her shamelessly big mouth), and most of all embarrassed, so rather than defend myself, I did the next best thing; I fled.

Like a child, I ran all the way to the girl's dorm screaming: "It doesn't count! We were already at the common room!" Only when I was safely in my room did I collapse onto my bed with a groan, shoving my head into the pillow with exasperation.

Well crap. How was I supposed to avoid him now?


	3. Chapter 2

_**a/n: I do not own Harry Potter copyrights.**_

I snuck downstairs long after the rest of my roommates had left, thanking the heavens that it was a Saturday. Unlike most people probably believed, I wasn't sleeping in. On the contrary, I had barely slept at all, staying up devising plans to avoid Cedric Diggory.

That's what I was doing now actually, avoiding him. It's what I've been doing every day since that age incident last month. For you see Cedric (unlike the past 6 years of my life) had suddenly decided that he didn't want to be avoided anymore, thus making it his life goal to stick to me like glue.

It started on that first day, not long after he had guessed my correct age (I say that in the loosest way, he cheated, there was no honest guessing). A couple of hours after it had blown over I had headed to dinner in quite the chipper mood, honestly thinking that, though he had never promised to leave me alone, I would not be bothered by the guy again.

Of course it was only a few seconds later that I'd entered the Great Hall and saw Cedric, of all people, waving at me like a lunatic as he gestured to the open seat beside him. I had turned bright red almost instantly of course (especially after every Hufflepuff at the table turned to stare at me) and immediately sat down at a different seat, one that was as far away from Cedric as I could get it.

But Cedric had not been deterred. Instead he had gotten up, grabbed his plate, walked to where I sat (wide eyed and surprised) and sat down next to me with a flourish.

It wasn't just the Hufflepuff's who had stared then; all of Cedric's fan girls were openly gaping too, even the ones from separate houses. Kara, whom I had sat next to despite the fiasco she had caused the day before, looked both nervous and excited. As I had nearly torn her face off just for speaking to Cedric, and as Cedric himself was still her current crush, it really hadn't been hard to see why.

Pinning Kara with a no nonsense look, I had started up a rather forced conversation with her about Bogarts, blatantly ignoring the unwanted presence of Cedric. Kara had surprisingly followed my lead with no complaints, though that was probably more to get back on my good side after making me so angry. She wasn't a bad person after all, just a little thoughtless. It wasn't like she knew why I had to stay away from these people.

That didn't mean I missed the rather wistful look she shot him when she thought I wasn't looking though.

Dinner had passed with me pretending that I couldn't feel the eyes of the whole of Hogwarts's female population on my back. I had hated it, hated Cedric. _Years_ of working so hard to be ignored, to not make a difference, gone just like that.

I didn't want to be the center of attention, _couldn't _be. That was dangerous ground, ground that would get people that I could see, if I had just looked around the Great Hall, _killed_ in only a few years' time.

Cedric would be killed, I knew it. Knew it and wouldn't do anything about it.

I had fled as soon as it had been acceptable to do so, that day, and every day since. That didn't mean Hufflepuff's Golden Boy was deterred though. No, he seemed to take it as some sort of challenge, showing up wherever I happened to be. Lunch? He was there, saving a seat. The common room? There, waving madly by the fire.

It was maddening; he was relentless, no matter how much I ignored him. People saw me now, recognized me, and knew me as that strange girl that Cedric just wouldn't leave alone. I had to stop it, had to get back to being just the wallflower of Hufflepuff.

So instead of just ignoring him, I began to respond.

I stopped going to meals, much to my friends' bewilderment, and started making midnight excursions to the kitchens. I stopped stopping in the common room, and instead went straight to the dorms knowing that, as a boy, Cedric could not follow. The only part of my day that was the same was classes. Cedric was not in my year after all and, as such, not in my lessons. The Teachers must have thought I was possessed, what with the fervor I suddenly took to my studies. Every lesson was suddenly one I had to stay behind to ask questions and beg for extra assignments. They of course had no idea that studying was the excuse I gave for spending so much time in the dorms.

As a result, the grades that I had once strived to keep average and unnoticeable were beginning to skyrocket. There was even talk of putting me back in Transfigurations, the class I had purposefully flunked out of last year because McGonagall (who was on my list) had begun to notice how good I was at the subject.

It was kind of ironic actually, how my efforts to not be noticed just made me that much more noticeable.

Kara was baffled by my behavior, and I'm sure Cedric was as well. They didn't understand why I had to do this, why I hated attention so much. If asked, Kara, as she had known me since she had (quite literally actually) stumbled into my compartment on the Hogwarts Express back in first year, would say quite confidently that I was a practical person and hated things interrupting the way I planned for things to be. Cedric, as used as he was to fame, would probably just call me shy.

That I didn't want to get involved with Cedric because I knew he'd be dead by the end of the year. . . well, how would I say that?

I couldn't, and this was exactly why I happened to be sneaking down the stairs to the Hufflepuff Common Room at nearly two in the afternoon on a Saturday. Well that and Cedric had Quidditch Practice after lunch and would, as such, not be around to hound me into spending time with him. Unfortunately, since lunch had ended close to an hour ago, this also meant that I'd be making yet another trip to the kitchens.

As the first lucky turn of events that I had had in a while, the kitchens weren't too far at all. In my opinion, this fact only served my theory that, out of all the founders, it had been Helga who had built the school. It made sense; Hufflepuffs had always tended to be the nervous eater types.

After making quick work in jumping over the squeaking step, looking in all corners on the off chance that practice was cancelled, and sticking well to the shadows, I found myself before the fruit tapestry three hallways down from Hufflepuff's barrels.

Strangely, as I tickled the pear and turned the doorknob it turned into, I was left with the strangest feeling that I had done much more work than I actually had. Or maybe just that I should be going around corners with my hands in the 'gun' position going 'pew, pew, pew' at any stray book characters I happened to come across.

Merlin only knew that I was beginning to feel ridiculous enough for it.

I sighed as I entered the kitchen and, despite the fact that I asked the elves for tea, knew that what I really wanted was something a bit stronger.

"Bad day?" Cedric asked, sounding just as put out as I did.

I nodded and had "Oh you have _no _idea." out before my mind caught up with my mouth and I suddenly realized exactly who I happened to be in the same room with. It was a thought that resulted in a dropped muffin and a sound that sounded somewhat like a strangled wookie.

"No wait! Don't go!" He called just as I had turned around again, fully intending to get the hell out of dodge. "At least stay and eat something. Jafton told me you missed lunch."

While my mind registered that 'Jafton' was Kara's last name (and that I may or may not kill her for speaking to Cedric about me), my stomach decided to growl what I could only assume was the song of its people. Several of the house elves around me 'tutted' and went to get me something a little more substantial than a muffin; several more shot me looks that promised missing bed sheets if I even _thought_ about leaving before they had gotten it for me.

Cedric laughed, though if this was at my stomach, the elves, or at the interesting color that I was turning, I guess I'll never know. He patted the seat next to him and so I, knowing the elves would never let me leave anyway, decided to just swallow my pride and take his offer.

If he heard the "Fine," that I mumbled like a sulking child, he didn't comment on it.

We sat in the sort of awkward silence that only comes when you'd been avoiding someone for the greater part of the last month. I munched on my newly acquired sandwich; he nervously fondled what looked to be a blank scrap of parchment.

After another long moment of munching, Cedric coughed. "So. . . you've been avoiding me."

I nodded, though he had phrased it as a statement and most likely had come to that conclusion long before he had ever said it to me. In lieu of actually telling him _why_ however, I took a bite that was large enough for me have an excuse to remain silent for another good minute or so.

_Oh Merlin this is awkward._

"No comment on that?" He actually sounded a bit frustrated, running his hand through his hair and everything. Why get flustered over me? I had made a _point _to be uninteresting; there were hundreds of girls that would _bow_ for him. "Well I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised."

"You've been following me. That's not usually socially accepted."

"I wasn't follow-" He paused, apparently thinking it over, and suddenly smiled quite sheepishly. "Ok, maybe I was. Look, I just wanted to be friends. It's not like I'm going to hex you or perform some dark ritual on your soul."

He laughed lightly but his wording still sent shivers down my spine, I didn't like how close to his own death he had gotten with that description. But I couldn't say that, saying that would be weird, or maybe even clinically insane. Was there a code of conduct for talking to formerly fictional characters? Finally I settled with: "Did you cancel practice just to confront me? And here I thought you didn't know I visited the kitchens."

Oddly enough, Cedric seemed to take my comment with a degree of surprise and quite a bit of fluster. "What? You thought I- No, I wasn't waiting for- I mean I just-," He sighed and looked down to the parchment between his fingers. "What I meant to say is that yes, Jafton told me you'd be here but I didn't cancel practice because of it. I didn't even know if you'd even been here yet! I just came here to . . . well, I came here to think."

I blinked and placed my empty plate down slowly, sandwich now long gone. Now that I had eaten and the elves had stopped looking at me like I was a criminal, I knew that I should do what I had originally intended and get the hell out of there. And yet, there was something about Cedric's expression that kept me grounded there. It was. . . forlorn, maybe? No, it was _distant_, like I was and wasn't looking at him.

"You _did _cancel practice then? Weren't you the one who said a team should practice even though the Triwizard Tournament cancelled all the matches? Something about keeping them in shape for next year?" It was true; I had been in the Common Room when he'd made the speech shortly after the announcement of the Tournament itself. Now, at only a week or two before the rival schools arrived, Hufflepuff was one of the only houses that still used the field.

"What? You knew all that?" He grinned in a crooked sort of way. "And here I thought you didn't care."

"I don't, I just like Quidditch."

He rolled his eyes, but he didn't seem nearly as flustered and hurt by my bluntness as he had when I had first walked through the door. Maybe he was getting used to me. "Well, in any case, I _did_ cancel, but just for the day. Like I said, I wanted to think over some things." He held up the parchment scrap. "Do you know what this is?"

"No." I looked at it closely but it didn't do anything particularly special. It was just a blank, completely ordinary piece of paper. "Should I?"

There was a chuckle as Cedric looked at the paper and blushed slightly, "Oops, wrong side. Here." He flipped the scrap over and held it back up. "Is that better?"

It was, because now I could see Cedric's own name scrawled out in what was actually some pretty good penmanship. There was nothing else on it, just the name, but that was enough for me to suddenly turn a great deal paler than I had been before. "That," I said slowly, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. "Is a slip for the G- Tournament, isn't it?"

At the slip of the tongue, I blushed slightly. Students weren't supposed to know about the Goblet of Fire after all, and I was certainly no exception. That Cedric had already written up his slip was a bit surprising actually. For a brief second, I wondered how long he'd been considering this.

"It. . .uh. . . may be, yes. I've been thinking of entering. You know, trying my hand at a chance of fortune."

It was a hand that, I knew in every fiber of my body, would be far from kind to Cedric. But what could I say? 'Don't go, you're going to die when Voldemort kidnaps Harry and uses his blood to regenerate himself'? No, of course I couldn't say that, it would be meddling. Meddling in a storyline I had already sworn to keep as far away from as possible.

Of course, I _knew_ that I was meddling just by hearing Cedric out in the first place, I just rationalized it. I mean, it wasn't like I'd ever willingly do it again, right?

"Are you _sure_ you want to do this?" I asked because, though I knew it would be interfering if I warned him away completely (not that I thought he'd listen), I also knew that I'd feel unbearably guilty if I just told him to do it. I had to at least _hint _at the dangers or I'd never be able to sleep.

"They cancelled the Tournament for its extremely high _death _count. They used to judge the contestants by the lowest number of _mutilations_."

Cedric laughed. "You're worried about me? And here I thought you'd be happy that I could go and get myself killed. At least that way I'd be out of your hair." His laughter lasted until he saw the look on my face. He sobered up and sighed. "Look, I don't know why you suddenly care but don't get yourself too worked up about it. Those things happened hundreds of years ago. Do you really think Dumbledore would just sit by and let them happen now? They've already done loads to make it safe. Just take the age limit on the gauntlet."

I looked down, at the house elves, at the stone walls, and at the long, empty tables. It was _hard_ knowing that you were discussing something that would eventually lead to someone's death, even harder knowing that you were in the perfect position to stop it altogether. It was tempting, so bitterly_ tempting_ to just tell him not to do it. But then what would happen? What other student would I be damning to a game where they might just die as well?

No, I refuse to have someone else's blood on my hands.

"Can I ask you for a favor?" I blurted out suddenly, wringing my hands nervously on my lap. "Not now, but sometime in the future."

"A favor?" The boy sitting next to me blinked at me slowly. "And I don't get to know what it is till later?"

I nodded, feeling absolutely stupid for even _thinking_ about such a thing. Despite knowing that he had to die, despite having made peace with it back when I was still in diapers, I was beginning to feel like actually knowing Cedric was beginning to dampen my resolve. Maybe. . . just maybe, I'd be able to use the favor to give him a good memory before he died.

"You don't have to." I told him, knowing that I must have sounded right barmy to the guy. "It'd just mean a lot to me."

For a long moment Cedric just sat there, maybe mulling it over, maybe just contemplating my reasoning. Finally he smiled a lopsided grin that I'd long associated with him. "Alright, but I have a condition."

I eyed him suspiciously; knowing as well as he did that that was my wording when he had first attempted to guess my age. "What _kind_ of condition?"

Cedric stuck his tongue out at me playfully. "Well nothing quite as mean as making the other touch the wrong barrel and drench themselves in vinegar, I assure you. All I want is for you to stop avoiding me and be my friend. As a result, I'll stop stalking you all over the school. Deal?"

I frowned, though it was more in a thoughtful way then in a particularly upset one. Of course, I knew very well that by accepting this I might as well be throwing all my hard earned years of obscurity out the window. You couldn't just be Cedric's friend and _not _be noticed after all. And yet, what would I really change?

Cedric would die eventually, whether I liked it or not. Maybe I could give him a friend before he went.

So I stopped running (metaphorically of course) for the first time since the gas leak all those years ago and, even though he hadn't originally offered it, reached out and shook Cedric's hand.

"Deal."


	4. Chapter 3

_**A/n: I do not own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Cedric met me outside of Defense the Monday after we'd had our little heart to heart in the Kitchens. It wasn't like this was particularly surprising, he'd made a blatant point of eating with me in the Kitchens for the past few days. He'd also been subtly trying to drag me back up to the Great Hall and back into civilization.

I'd refused every time. Being his friend didn't mean I wanted to succumb to all that attention just yet.

Which, of course, made this somewhat of our first public appearance. Well, so to speak. I _had _been seen with Cedric before, this was just the first time I didn't sprint in the other direction.

Needless to say, Eloise Midgen (the only other girl in my dorm besides Kara and myself) stopped listening to my rendition on how curses were _not _a good way to get rid of acne the second the handsome Hufflepuff smiled our way.

I sighed, fought the sudden urge to see if Moody (despite the fact that I was just as jumpy with him as I had once been with Quirrel) had any extra assignments, and smiled back.

"I've been looking for you," He half sang as he both stole my bag and slung an arm over my shoulder. "A little birdy tells me that you've been bad."

"A little birdy?" I repeated somewhat incredulously as I momentarily stopped my attempts to snatch my bag back. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about?"

"Well . . . I guess she wouldn't be a 'little birdy' so much as she'd be an 'old bat', but I thought the first one sounded more polite." He sent me a wink. "Don't want to be kicked out of Transfigurations myself, now do I?"

_Oh crap, run! _The little voice in my head screamed as I tried to do just that. Cedric caught me by the back of my robes quite easily however, and I knew that he knew what I had just figured out. The plea for help I sent Eloise's way was just as pointless, as it seemed she had bolted for the hills sometime during my little banter with Cedric. This too was unsurprising, the girl never could seem to function around handsome boys.

"But _why_?" I whined as Cedric slung me right next to my stolen bag and began to stroll down the hall. I didn't even try to fight, Cedric was stronger and I knew it. Well, that and the classroom we were heading for was only one hallway down. In the time it took for me to struggle, we'd already be there.

"What does it matter if I failed one class last year?"

"It _matters _because you failed your OWLs after getting top grades on every essay you ever sent in, Miss Whitman." A stony voice suddenly spoke up, sending chills down my spine. "I've been told you've made a miraculous recovery in your other lessons. Perhaps it is time to correct your mistake in my own."

Cedric set me down and I was left staring up into the face of the Transfigurations Professor, standing proud in her own doorway. Just as I had once done for Cedric, I'd been avoiding her since Professor Vector told me what she planned. Failing out of her class had been _painful_, especially when I had to throw spells that I _knew _I could do. I didn't want to repeat the experience, but I knew I'd have too if she forced me to retake the test.

As a professor who would be in the Order, I knew better than to attract her attention now.

"_Professor McGonagall!"_ I squeaked as my voice suddenly decided to be a good two or three octaves higher than normal. "I wasn't avoiding you, I swear!"

McGonagall's lip twitched and Cedric snorted from behind me. Too late, I realized that they had never accused me of avoiding her and that I had just confirmed their suspicions.

Well . . . Crap.

"If that is indeed the case, Miss Whitman," McGonagall sounded amused, that was never a good sign. "Perhaps you would like to step inside? Your retake is on the front desk."

I took a step and then stopped. Halfway through passing her and trudging into the classroom, McGonagall cleared her throat. "And Miss Whitman?"

"Yes Professor?"

"Please keep in mind that acquiring a retake of an OWL exam is by no means an easy feat. It took the intervention of both the Headmaster and myself to pull the amount of strings necessary. I can promise you that neither of us will be pleased if that effort proves to be fruitless." She let the threat hang.

A few seconds later when I sat before my test, being in Transfigurations again didn't sound bad at all.

The exam certainly wasn't. Bad, I mean. Like last time, I knew every answer and could do every spell. There was a certain smug approval on McGonagall's face when I turned the desk into a perfectly normal, wood shine free, pig. She actually looked happy, something that was scary in itself, when I handed her my test for the last time.

Cedric, who had waited patiently in the corner the entire time, looked just as smug. Or perhaps the correct word was 'awestruck'. His eyes certainly bugged enough for me to feel my own brand of smug.

Looking back, that might have been due to the fact that I'm pretty sure Cedric, a _seventh_ year, would've most likely taken a good half an hour longer.

"Happy now?" I hissed once we left, Cedric nonchalantly steering us in the direction of the Great Hall. After the scene he had caused just by getting me to McGonagall, I found I no longer cared if I was seen eating with him.

"Eh, maybe just a bit." He grinned in a way that didn't seem biologically possible. "But that _Test_! Did you see how fast . . . no wait, of course you did. What I meant to say was: 'How in Merlin's name did you ever flunk out the first time'? Even _I _didn't get my Transfiguration OWL done that quickly. I'd bet a Galleon that you got at least an O."

I gave him a look that I'm pretty sure conveyed how exasperated I felt. "Cedric, O is the highest grade there is. 'At least' doesn't make sense when there's nothing better."

He waved me off. "Bah, after the show you put on, I wouldn't be surprised if McGonagall makes up a new grade just for you. 'J' for 'Julia' maybe. That pig you did definitely deserved it. It was loads better than some of the Ravenclaws I've seen, even the ones that got O's themselves. Which reminds me: Why _aren't _you a Ravenclaw?"

"Cedric," I deadpanned half way through his rant, one that sounded far more like Kara then it did the Hufflepuff Superstar. It was just a test, one of which he had only really observed the practical portion of. "You're acting like a proud Quidditch mum."

"I think I'm entitled, I did drag you into that classroom after all."

"Against my free will, if I might add." There was a rather heated glare from me to him. He winced and I knew my point was conveyed. Success or not, the point still remained that I never _wanted_ to retake the class to begin with. "Did you ever even think-"

And then, before I could tell Cedric off properly, Ernie Macmillan was suddenly standing in the exact same spot I currently occupied. It was a fact that would have been all well and dandy if basic science didn't dictate that we were both sent crashing down the hall.

"Julia!" Cedric yelped as Ernie and I flew past him, me doing a sort of ungraceful summersault before coming to a halt (upside down and missing my left shoe) under the tittering portrait of Alberta Toothill. He ran straight past Ernie, who was just as gracefully poised, in a mad dash to help me up. "Bloody hell! Are you alright?!"

"I'm _fine_, don't fuss." Was what I said.

"Oh I'm just bloody perfect, thanks for asking." Was what Ernie could be heard muttering sarcastically in the background.

"You alright?" I asked the fourth year once Cedric had stopped fretting and started the search for my shoe. He, it seemed, must have taken the mum comment to heart; Merlin knows, he was certainly acting like mine.

"Yeah, I'll live." Ernie huffed as he got to his feet on his own. He leveled a nasty glare in Cedric's direction the moment he was standing but I'm afraid it really didn't last all that long. The moment he realized just _who _he was glaring at, his personality did a startling 180.

"Oh, Cedric! It's you!" He chirped rather loudly as he suddenly became _much _more interested in my shoe hunt than he had been five seconds prior. A fact that probably had much more to do with who he was helping than whose shoe he was finding. "I've been looking _everywhere _for you! Must've scoured this bloody hallway at least nine times."

Cedric handed me the shoe that one of the suits of armor had nonchalantly tried to hide and turned to face the younger Hufflepuff fully. His eyebrow was risen. "You've been looking for me?"

"Yeah, ever since afternoon lessons got out! Passed by the notice board and figured you'd want to know the latest news."

"Why didn't you just wait until he got back to the dorms?" I asked, noting and dismissing the fact that I was beginning to look almost exactly like Cedric beside me, what with my arms crossed and brow raised like they were.

It was just that I found Ernie's explanation somewhat ridiculous, though that could've been colored by him running into me at top speed. Why chase someone all over the school when it was obvious where they'd eventually end up? Despite being a prefect and allowed out after curfew, Cedric still slept in the dorms. It was logical that he'd return to them at some point.

"Well. . . I. . . I just thought." Ernie turned an interesting shade of red. "Never you mind that. Now go on Cedric, ask me what I've got to tell you!"

"Er . . . alright then. What do you know, Macmillan?"

"Only that those Delegations from Durmstrang and Beuxbatons will be here by Friday. Apparently they're going to get here around 6 and the whole school will be let out to greet them. We even get a half hour off our last lesson!"

"A half hour?" I asked, excited despite myself. Sure, I knew that this day was coming, but the thought of less time with Moody made me positively giddy. Suddenly I wanted to grab the nearest person (who just happened to be Cedric) and dance a jig or two. "That's great!"

Ernie sent me a mild glare, obviously a bit miffed that someone other than Cedric was talking to him. My happy spirits dampened a bit. "Yeah, yeah. But more _importantly,_ it means that they're going to start taking applications for the Tournament! Are you going to enter Cedric? That would be so cool if you did!"

Cedric, for his part, seemed to be much more used to talking to female fans then he was to the male ones. He looked somewhat disturbed at the moment, to be honest, and he was taking a step back for every step Ernie took forward. It would've been bloody hilarious if Ernie's attitude hadn't already made me mad.

"Uh. . . yes? No wait, I mean: Yes, of course I will. It sounds like it'll be really fun."

_Or really, extremely, death defyingly dangerous._ I thought but didn't dare add.

"Shouldn't we be heading to dinner? I want to sit at my table again." I cut in, startling Cedric. He must have thought he was being subtle when he had first led us off to the Great Hall. Never mind the fact that the Kitchens were in a completely different direction or that I'd been in the castle long enough to know my way around.

"Dinner, great idea!" Cedric cheered, latching onto my idea just as firmly as he was literally latching on to my arm. He dragged me down the hall a few feet, waving to the fourth year as he went. "Sorry Ernie, but Julia gets _really_ cranky when she's hungry. I'll see you some other time, alright?"

Ernie said something and took a step in our direction, but Cedric was moving much too fast for the kid. That, and a few well-placed secret corridors, and we had lost the boy within minutes.

We were both snickering by the time we got to the Great Hall. I smacked him half-heartedly upside the head.

"I get cranky when I'm hungry? _Really_? You made me sound like a hormonal dragon!"

Cedric blushed and the color actually didn't look half bad. "What?! No! I didn't mean it like that! I just wanted an excuse to. . ."

"Get rid of someone with a massive man-crush?"

"No! He didn't have a m . . . I mean, he was just a. . ." He sent me a glare that was more like a puppy's pout than anything particularly scary. "We will never speak of this again."

Still laughing, I performed a dramatic bow for the beat red Golden Boy. "As you wish. Milord."

"Oh shut it."

Cedric turned and half stomped, half fled into the safety of the Dinner rush. I followed him and sat down next to him, grinning because I knew that he wasn't really mad. While he wasn't quite a charmer when it came to fan_ boys_, both he and I knew that, for the most part, they were fairly harmless.

Ernie, for one, was just as much a player with the women as Cedric was. He just happened to admire the guy to a level that was somewhat unhealthy.

"I have a bone to pick with you." Kara groused. She slid into the spot across from me, her complete disregard of Cedric's presence telling me just how serious this was. "I just so happened to be visiting Princess in the Owlery today. Want to know what I found?"

"Uh. . . Owls?"

Kara glared and, while it was nowhere near as impressive as the one McGonagall had leveled at me earlier, I still found myself sinking lower into my seat. She slammed something large roughly onto the table, bits of my food flying everywhere as whatever it was displaced my plate. Cedric spluttered as a carrot hit him in the nose.

"What I _found_. . ." The blond ground out, "Was a two foot tall Barn Owl straight from the pits of hell!"

"Oh, Merlin." I sighed, even as Cedric snorted at the analogy. "Bubbles again?"

"Yes _Bubbles_, that stupid, evil little thing that should not, in any universe, have a name that cute! He practically traumatized Princess, _again_, and completely ruined my hair. Hours spent getting every curl perfect just gone! All because _your_ stupid pet decided to throw _your_ letters in _my _face!"

Kara took a much needed breath and Cedric took the time to interrupt. He turned to me with an eyebrow already raised. "You named your owl _Bubbles_?"

I ignored him in favor of peeling the before mentioned letters off the food smeared table, as only now did I realize that they had been what Kara threw down. There were _tons_ of them, a sizable pile of Daily Prophets, letters from home and postcards, all with varied dates scrawled or printed across the parchment. It was then, as I read those dates, that I realized what hat set off my already psychopathic owl.

"Oh. I haven't been checking my mail."

And indeed I hadn't. Nearly a month of avoiding Cedric meant I hadn't been around for the breakfast mail call. I also hadn't been up to the Owlery since the start of term. It was no wonder the owl was so mad, I'd completely forgotten about him. He must have been getting tired of hauling my junk around if he'd attacked Kara with it.

And speaking of which. . . "I'm sorry Bubbles attacked you Kara. I'd say it wouldn't happen again but . . . well, you know."

"Know that your owl is a masochist with wings?" Kara huffed. "Yeah, I knew that."

Besides being somewhat surprised that Kara knew the word 'masochist', I found that I didn't really know what to say to make the situation better. Thankfully, Cedric saved the day by plucking an envelope from my arms and reading aloud the red ink letters written on the parchment.

"Circus de Gáire," He flipped the thick, starchy white envelope over in his hand. There were no other words written. "What's this?"

"You didn't know?" Kara, as always, was always willing to abandon her anger when there was good gossip to be had. "That's the circus that Julia's family runs. They're famous for traveling all over the British Isles, performing magic for muggles. The ministry is always trying to get them for the Statue of Secrecy but they never break it. The wizards would probably raise a fuss about it too, if they ever got close, the Féile de Magic's just too popular."

There was a lot that she left out about my family of course, but I didn't say any of it out loud. Kara was exhausting enough to talk to regularly, let alone when she got on a role. If Cedric wanted to know the finer points, I'd tell him later.

"Féile de Magic?" Cedric asked. He seemed interested, at least. "Is that different from the first one?"

"The Circus de Gáire? Well no, not exactly. It's more like its 'other half'. The Circus is just the daytime portion, where they entertain the muggles. Féile de Magic is what happens at night. A festival just for the wizarding community. When the real magic comes out . . ."

"Imagine nights lit up with Fairy lights," I interrupted. As my favorite part, I knew Kara wouldn't do it justice.

"Rides propelled with magic high into the sky, trails of galaxies streaming behind you. Sitting on the back of a Pegasus under the moonlight, where you just _breathe_ in the dust and feel the heavy beats of their wings. Imagine seeing flashing magical streamers everywhere you look, _spinning_, _swirling_, _turning_ the night to stars. Sit down and play cards with Leprechauns for enchanted prizes that _cheer_ foryou and sweet fizzy candies that make you _sing_. Sitting in the high-top is an experience that Omnioculars could never do justice. Magically enhanced so that, no matter how high you sit, you can always see every individual grain of dust. And, in that high-top, Magical creatures from all over the world perform amazing feats literally right under your nose. Wyverns dance, Hypogriffs fly, Fairies laugh and dance. ." I stopped and looked out to my audience. I'd forgotten they were there.

Everyone, from Kara and Cedric to a few other Hufflepuffs, stared back, completely entranced and utterly silent.

Somewhere in my description, the awe_ I_ felt had become _theirs_. It wasn't something I could help exactly. The first Féile de Magic my parents ever performed, not a week after Harry saved the world, forever ingrained those feelings within me.

It's the happiest memory I have.

"That was. . ." Cedric said after a long pause. He shook his head as if to clear it. "I never knew you were such a romantic."

Eleanor Branstone, Owen Cauldwell, Laura Madley, and Kevin Whitby, the four first years that had listened in, all nodded eagerly. Kara, far from being mad that I had interrupted her, just sighed dreamily.

Reaching over, I plucked the envelope away from Cedric and broke the red wax seal. I knew what was in it, as it was what my parents sent every year in the hope that I'd finally make more than one friend. Oh, wouldn't they be surprised that I actually gave some of them out.

"Here." I said. Two shiny red and gold tickets were laid in front of my two friends. I tried not to think of how Cedric would never be able to use his. "These are for next summer, you guys should come."

Kara beamed like the sun and squealed like a niffler as she snatched up her ticket and hugged it close to her chest.

Cedric was more reserved. He simply picked it up and _looked_ at me and I could tell exactly what he wanted me to know. How, for him, this was a sign that I was opening up, that I was becoming more than the girl who avoided him.

He didn't need to know that I felt guilty, that I knew I wouldn't help him when he died.

"Thank you."


	5. Chapter 4

_**A/n: I don't own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Sitting on the comfiest sofa in the Hufflepuff common room, I smiled as I read the latest of the seven letters my brother, Marcus, had sent to me. Like the other six, this one described in detail the antics of my sister-in-law and nephew. Three year old Kevin, it seemed, had recently come into the habit of stealing daddy's wand. He then proceeded to poke things with it until something happened. Usually they got bigger, then they exploded.

On an unrelated note Sarah, his mother and Marcus's wife, had developed a rather odd paranoia of stepping on enlarged slugs. Huh.

The letter made me wistful for home, to be honest. Hogwarts, despite being a literal place of fantasy and magic, had never quite held the lure for me that it did for the other students. It was a fact that was, most likely, due to how exhausting it was to actively avoid half its population.

Home was more relaxing, the only thing in this fictional world that I truly felt I had a claim on.

There was no Circus de Gáire in JK Rowling's rendition after all, no Julia Whitman. Knowing this kept me sane, as even I knew that the entirety of an entire society couldn't be summarized in a single book series. If the world I knew now was nothing more than what one woman could write down, I would never have taken it as reality.

I read the letter again before placing it with the other letters in my bag and picking up my quill and parchment instead. I wrote Marcus a summarized rendition of my first few months at Hogwarts, making sure to include an apology for missing so many letters, and folded it neatly inside a nice, crisp envelope. Once the new letter was properly addressed and sealed, I gathered it up with the rest of my replies and jumped from my comfy perch.

Cracking my back, I did what I'd been putting off all day, and began my trek to the Owlery.

My owl had a rather nasty temper, something I knew better than even Kara did. After ignoring him for the better part of a month, I knew I wouldn't be leaving my next visit without at _least_ a couple bad scratches on my arms. It was the reason I'd decided to read my mail, and then write my replies to said mail, before I came to face him.

Now, out of excuses, I figured if I didn't suck it up now, it'd only be worse later on.

It wasn't a short walk. My common room was in the _dungeon_, not exactly a simple stroll when it came to the cold, airy tower that some mastermind had decided to build our Owlery into. Add that to the fact that tower was on the other side of the school and . . . well, let's just say my feet weren't exactly happy with me when I finally climbed the last step.

"Owowowow." I muttered between breaths. Leaning against the wall outside the Owlery door, I tried to massage my aching feet without going tumbling right down the steps again. It wasn't exactly _easy_. "Forget being an Arithmancy Professor, I think I'm going to invent the first magical elevator."

A loud but muffled thud shook me out of my musings, followed closely by an equally muffled string of curses. I shot the Owlery door a curious look. Had someone taken up playing Quidditch indoors? It sure as hell sounded like it.

Opening the door, I found that whatever noise I could hear on the stairs was actually nothing compared to the chaos that was going on in here. Now I could hear the grating screeching of an overexcited pigmy owl and every other bird it displaced in its mad flight around the room. My hands flew up to cover my ears even as I instinctively shied away from the noise.

It was so loud, so loud that my head was splitting. That I had not heard it through the stone seemed impossible.

Two boys, both sporting matching flames of red hair, crashed into perches and crates alike, adding to the mayhem as they tried desperately to catch the little pigmy owl I'd noticed earlier. The curses they were throwing into the mayhem were so creative that I was absolutely positive they had never existed in my old world.

I could see Bubbles glaring down at me from high in the rafters. He seemed torn, like he didn't know if he'd rather brave the chaos to rip at my face or stay safe above the hoard.

He must have decided I wasn't worth the risk. There was no Owl of Doom attacking my face, at least.

One of the boys tripped and landed rather harshly a few feet from where I stood, rolling until he face planted into the wall. I would have helped him, but in the split second that I saw his face, I realized that I recognized him.

Fred and George fricken Weasley. Was it my luck? Or did Karma just _want_ me to run into these people?

Either way, I wasn't about to stick around and strike up a friendly chat. Oh no, I'd learned my lesson with Cedric. There was no way I was going to let the goddam _Weasley Twins_ butt their way into my life like he had.

Unfortunately Fred (or George, I could never tell), seemed to have other ideas. Peeling himself off the wall, he latched himself onto my arm and refused to let go.

"Help. . . Owl . . . catch . . . please." The Twin got out that much between heavy breaths before he decided to just shoot me with puppy eyes instead. Thank Merlin his brother hadn't seemed to realize I was there yet. I don't think I could take double of those eyes.

"Uh. . ." I replied stupidly, already feeling myself melting inside. Puppy eyes, no matter the bearer, would always be my greatest weakness. I looked over to where his brother was still running around, the owl in question seeming more excited than anything else.

That was . . . something at least, a scared Owl would be harder to catch.

Which of course meant that I was already planning on giving in, good to know I had no backbone to speak of.

Breaking, I turned back to the pouting Twin and sighed. "Alright, just give me a moment."

I ignored his bright smile and instead rummaged around in my bag for something I _know _I'd brought with me. It was meant as a peace offering for Bubbles of course, but hopefully my pet would forgive me for not giving it to him.

"Oi!" I called suddenly, gaining the attention of both the owls and the other twin. Pouring the little bag of seed into my palm, I held it up to where the birds could see it. "Come and get it!"

It had the desired effect, well to an extent. The little excited Owl landed on my outstretched palm almost immediately, to which the first twin instantly snatched him up. Of course, when thirty other owls suddenly swooped down upon me, I realized how ridiculously stupid it was to offer _all_ the owls the treat.

"Ow! Ow! Get off!" I yelped as more than a few beaks pecked skin instead of seed. Only when the little bag was empty and I was sporting several new welts, did the owls fly back to their respective perches. Bubbles was still in the rafters. He looked pleased too, the little sod.

Not like the Twins had been the greatest of help either, mind you. I shot them a vicious glare as they finally uncurled from where they had been on the floor . . . busting a gut laughing.

"Ha ha, very funny. See if I ever help you lot again."

Still growling under my breath, I marched over to Bubbles and held my arm out to him. All I really wanted was to send my post and get out of there, but I wasn't naïve enough to truly think it'd be that easy. Bubbles didn't just stay up in the rafters, at least (as me just standing there with my arm out would've made me look like an idiot) but he did make sure to dig his claws in extra hard when he landed.

Since his anger _was_ justified, I grit my teeth and bore it, knowing full well that I'd probably get much worse if the whole Owlery hadn't already beat him to it. After a few good minutes of groveling apologies on my part, my prick of an owl finally allowed me to tie my letters to his leg.

He smacked me across the face with his wings when he took off, but didn't drop the letters out the window. That, at least, was something.

Rubbing my smarting nose and picking up my bag from where I'd dropped it, I turned around to find that the two Weasley boys hadn't left like I'd hoped they would. Instead they stood with identical stances and grins on either side of the Owlery door.

I suppressed a groan, knowing full well that the Weasley Twins had just witnessed my scene with Bubbles.

"Lovely Owl, that." The Twin on the right said, the twitchy Owl in his hands marking him as the one who had convinced me to go Owl hunting earlier.

His brother laughed, "Right you are Fred, I'd love to have that one as a pet." George, as that was who he had to be, grinned mischievously. I raised my brow at the red envelope he had clutched in his hand.

_Now who would the Weasley Twins have to send a Howler to?_

I opened my mouth to ask but George had shifted the howler out of sight the moment he'd caught me looking. He coughed and stuck out his hand to distract me. "'S name's George, George Weasley. The git over there's my brother, Fred. Say hi, Fred."

"Hey!"

Momentarily forgetting about the Howler, I eyed his outstretched hand before gingerly accepting it. "Julia Whitman." I said, giving them my name if only because the last time I'd refused it to someone on my list, he'd ended up hounding me through the halls of Hogwarts.

"Right, thanks for helping catch Pig here." Fred held up the twitchy owl. "Sorry you got. . ."

"Mauled." George cut in, finishing for his brother in a way that must have been second nature for twins.

"Eh, I guess it's alright." And it was alright, it wasn't like I wasn't used to it. "Bubbles has done worse."

The brothers blinked before simultaneously bursting into laughter, startling the already twitchy Pig. Fred, still laughing, nearly got a wing to the face when the little Owl nearly broke free.

"You . . . you. . ." George got out even as his brother was wrestling Pig back to submission. "You . . . named. . ." He stopped and took a large breath. "You named _that_ owl _Bubbles_?"

"Yeah, what of it?" I frowned, knowing better than to give them the true backstory behind his name. "_That_ Owl's name is Pig."

As far as misnaming went, naming a psychotic bird 'Bubbles' wasn't any stranger than naming a hyperactive little twit 'Pig'. Who had named him anyway? Had he been in the book? I couldn't remember.

"You might have a point, there." George shrugged with that same shit-eating grin. He, it seemed, would find my decision funny whether I was logical about it or not.

"Though Ginny, our sister, named him, not us." Fred piped up, now finished with Pig. "He's not even ours. Our younger brother, Ron, owns him."

Hmm, now _that_ made sense. Though I'd never talked to either Weasley before, it did fit in with my series knowledge. Fred and George had never had an owl.

Well . . . they hadn't had one in Hogwarts, I didn't know if they'd gotten one afterwards.

"Good for him, then." I said as I stepped between the twins to open the door.

George shifted as I passed, making sure again that I couldn't see the Howler still tucked into his crossed arms. He'd had loads of time to tie it to Pig's leg, yet he didn't. It was clear to me that, whatever those boys were up to, they definitely didn't want me to witness it.

Not that I cared, exactly. The Weasley Twins were on my list. As long as what they were doing didn't include me in the slightest, I didn't care what it was.

"Wait," Fred said just as I reached the first step. He looked confused. "I think I've seen you before. Are you a sixth year?"

I nodded, knowing that I had to be a wallflower if it took him this long to realize that. "We have a few classes together."

Actually, I'd sat across from both of them in both Herbology and Charms not three hours ago. It was actually rather nice to know that they didn't know me, I liked feeling like all my efforts had paid off.

"Oh, right." Fred smiled sheepishly and an embarrassed flush set on his freckles. "I knew that."

"No, you didn't. But that's alright." I waited for a moment more to see if he would say anything else, before continuing down the stairs when he didn't.

The Owlery door closed behind me.

oOoOoOo

The rest of the week was . . . interesting.

The hype for the arriving schools was up for one. Everywhere I went, everyone I talked to, seemed to tie in to the Tournament in some way. A betting pool had even started among the houses on which student would get chosen for Hogwarts. Cedric, along with several other champion hopefuls, was in that betting pool.

I . . . _might_ have laid down a Galleon or two in his name. I felt horrible about it afterwards, of course.

Cedric caught me giving the money to Lee Jordan on the Quidditch pitch. He made me promise to split the profit 50/50 if I ever got anything out of it. I agreed, and was teased about it every day since. Apparently Cedric now thinks I have 'faith' in him. Goody.

On Wednesday, the day after I met the Twins in the Owlery, I faced my first Transfiguration lesson since McGonagall had had Cedric ambush me. I was prepared for humiliation and it was delivered when McGonagall, the old bat, had me stand up and explain to the class exactly _why _I was a month late.

What I wasn't prepared for was the red headed Twins who were now perfectly aware that I existed.

It was like a repeat of the Cedric incident, sans stalking. The two Weasley's had waved _very_ enthusiastically when I'd stepped through that door. I ignored them, just like I'd once done with Cedric, thinking that they'd get the hint and stop. Unfortunately, I think I underestimated them. The Weasley Twins were notorious pranksters and they loved a challenge. I didn't realize until later that I'd offered them one.

I don't think they wanted to be my friends, per se. They just wanted me to admit that I knew them. Or perhaps they were bored, it could be either really.

They didn't follow me, like Cedric had, but I don't think they really needed to. Unlike Cedric, they had the advantage of having every class but Arithmancy with me. Eight hours of uninterrupted class-time was plenty when it came to the imaginative minds of the Weasley Twins. By the time Friday rolled around, I'd had 19 magical notes passed, 33 frantic waves, and 24 saved seats, all within class hours.

I'd thought it before, but now I was sure. Karma hated me.

So now, sitting under Hufflepuff's silk badger banner in the Great Hall, I found myself studying the decorations that had been put up to impress the visiting schools. I was pointedly _not_ looking over at the Gryffindor table, where I was positive the two red heads in question were already seated.

Not that they were trying to annoy me at the moment actually, I just didn't want to take any chances.

"Julia? You alright?" Cedric asked between mouthfuls of his toast. "You've been spacing out all morning."

"Hmmm? What?" I blinked owlishly before a blush crept onto my cheeks. How did I look, I wonder, if Cedric noticed it? Sure, he was more observant than most, but I usually had a pretty good poker face. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just tired."

He frowned and didn't look all that convinced. "Are you sure? I could've sworn . . ." His eyes flashed over to the Gryffindor table.

Fred and George were talking to Harry Potter's golden trio now. The three fourth years looked like they'd interrupted some sort of scheming of the Twin's. Both brothers looked miffed. Realizing that I had looked, I turned back to see Cedric watching me.

"Is someone bothering you, Julia? Someone in Gryffindor?" His eyes went to the Twins again.

I blinked. "What?" He thought I was being _bullied_? "No! It's nothing like that." I sighed, knowing that I was perhaps over-reacting to the situation a bit. If I had to guess as to why, I'd say my experience with Cedric had made me paranoid.

It's not like I wanted to introduce another forbidden name into my circle of friends.

"Then what is it?"

"Maybe," Kara said as she took her place next to me. She was grinning wickedly. "It's our Julia getting herself a crush."

Both Cedric and I spluttered, me spraying out a generous amount of my pumpkin juice in the process.

"_What?"_ I gasped. Cedric was coughing so hard he looked like he might turn purple. "Where in Merlin's name did you get _that_ idea!?"

"Oh, you know, from someone who happens to be both your roommate and _yearmate_. Or did you forget I'm in three of your classes? I saw those Weasley Twins all but dancing to get your attention. The only question is: 'Just what did you do to get them wrapped around your finger?' Or more importantly:" She sent me a saucy wink. "Which one do you fancy?"

My face felt hot and I got the impression I was no longer the same shade I'd been before she'd sat down.

Cedric took a long swig of his juice and slammed the mug down, finally able to breathe. "You have a _what_?" He gasped, eyes wide. "On the _Weasley Twins_?"

"No!" I snapped before taking a calming breath. "No I don't. I only met them when I went up to the Owlery on Tuesday. I have no idea why they've been acting so. . ."

"Love-struck?" Kara supplied unhelpfully. I shot her a glare.

"No! Acting so _weird_."

Kara just shrugged, completely unapologetic. She looked like she liked her version better.

Cedric was alternating between frowning and sending glares at the Gryffindors. He shot me a sideways glance. "Are you sure it's nothing?"

"Absolutely."

He sighed, then smiled. "Oh, ok then. You're right though, they a_re _acting a bit weird. Who acts like that to someone they just met?"

_You did_, I thought but didn't say.

"I think they're just bored." I said instead. "Or maybe they got such a crack out of Bubbles that they just had to know more."

Kara blanched, her smug grin vanishing. "Ugh. You let them meet _him_? Julia! That's just cruel!"

"It's not like I planned to run into them!" I shot back. "And he only attacked me, not them."

"You know, the more you say about this Owl of yours, the more curious I am about him." Cedric was leaning across the table on his elbows. "When am I going to meet Bubbles?"

"Never, if you're lucky." Kara groused.

"Maybe someday, though Kara is right, to an extent." I ignored Kara's protest. "Bubbles isn't exactly _nice_ to people he doesn't know."

"Or anyone."

"We get it, Kara."

"I have an Owl, you know." Cedric said, the picture of confidence. "I can handle anything yours can throw at me."

I bit my lip, wondering if Cedric's definition of 'anything' was the same as mine. I got wounds regularly just by dealing with the bird, and I was his owner. The last time I'd introduced him to anyone, to Kara, it resulted in a lifelong rivalry that still showed no signs of letting up.

"Maybe." I got up and slung my bag over my shoulder, knowing that breakfast had lasted long enough. As if reading my thoughts, the school bell rang. "I'm going to head to class. You have Potions too, Kara?"

Kara made a face but got up nonetheless. "Unfortunately. Forget McGonagall, Snape's going to be the one that does me in, I swear it."

Cedric and I shared a chuckle. I shook my head. "Is there a teacher in this school that _doesn't_ hate you?" Seriously, the way she tells it, you'd swear everyone was out for her blood. Then again, Kara _did _have a bad habit of sleeping in class, so maybe it was true.

"Hm, I don't know. Professor Sprout maybe?"

Grabbing Kara's shoulder while she was still musing, I turned to Cedric with an apologetic smile. "We really do have to go. Meet you later when we get out to greet Durmstrang and Beuxbatons?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I would walk with you but . . ." Cedric eyed his half-finished plate hungrily. "I _do _have a free period and just _look_ at that toast. It'd be mad if I left it all alone."

I laughed and made my leave. Whether Cedric heard the "Glutton" I made sure to whisper oh so softly behind him?

Well, I guess that depends on how far into stuffing his face he was at the time.


	6. Chapter 5

_**A/n: I don't own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Kara was already on a roll by the time Professor Sprout led all us puffs out into the chilly lake air of Hogwarts. She, it seemed, had a million and one theories onto how our rival schools would make their appearance.

And the blond wasn't exactly _above_ exploiting her captive audience to share them.

Eloise, myself, and the four boys who had the misfortune of sharing both our house and year could only listen helplessly as Kara's covered everything from flying thestrals to mystical portals.

Cedric wasn't with us. He, being both a lucky bastard and a seventh year, was currently standing in a much quieter section of the lineup.

"Kara," I cut in in the middle of the girl's current idea that the lake's local mermen would somehow bring the foreign students to shore. I'd come to the realization that, as Kara's only friend in our group, the others had silently decided that _I_ would be the one to shut her up. "Should I even ask?"

The blonde stopped, if only to blink at me. I could practically feel the relief of the other four, it came off them in waves.

"Ask what?"

_Many things._ I thought as part of me wondered how exactly she thought our rivals would _get _to the bottom of our lake. "Let's start with where exactly you got your information."

It was a valid thought. Despite being a sixth year, Kara was also a muggleborn with a bad habit of sleeping through her lessons. And while I once wouldn't put it past some of the older years feeding her false information, we were now much too old for that to be a viable excuse.

Kara shrugged. "One of the Ravenclaw boys told me that it's tradition for the visiting schools to try and show each other up. I went to the Library for details."

She didn't mention that going to the Library was around as rare for her as forgetting to curl her hair in the morning. Yet despite that, I still wasn't surprised. Kara would risk many things if it meant getting something to gossip about.

"Sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon." Through either witchcraft or inattention Cedric was no longer where I'd spotted him but a second ago. Instead he had somehow managed to materialize behind me, grinning cheekily at Kara as he rested one elbow on the top of my head.

There was a very eloquent "GAH!" before I then proceeded to jump halfway out of my skin.

Cedric either didn't notice or care, not that I was currently on the verge of cardiac arrest or that every girl within three meters had suddenly turned very red. Eloise had done that squeaking thing she does around cute boys and was now steadily trying to disappear into her surroundings.

Kara, as used to Cedric as she was becoming, just smiled and waved.

"What'd I miss?" The superstar asked, reclaiming his arm rest on my head once I'd calmed down enough to stay in one place.

"Where in Merlin's name . . ." I breathed, a hand to my heart. "Why aren't you with your year?"

The taller boy sighed and rolled his eyes up to look up at the pale moon already showing through the clear evening sky. When they came back down to focus on me, he shook his head and 'tsked' at me under his breath. "I knew it. You've forgotten already."

Forgotten? Forgotten what? Forgotten that Cedric had a flare for dramatics that I don't ever remember being touched on in the books? No, I can't say I could ever forget that.

"Care to remind me?" I found myself saying instead, fighting the urge to sigh.

"Breakfast? Meeting up after class? Ring a bell?"

My eyes widen minutely as Cedric's words click. Oh! I'd said something like that when I'd dragged Kara to Potions this morning, hadn't I? After McGonagall had assigned three makeup essays at 6 rolls each, the Weasley brothers had enchanted my chair to _dance_ towards them, and Kara had decided to chatter my ear off, everything else had completely slipped my mind.

Cedric chuckled at my moment of enlightenment and my smile turned sheepish. Just as I was about to apologize however, a small hand tugged at my sleeve.

I turned and blinked at the timid face of Eloise Midgen staring back at me. She sent me a small smile and I suddenly felt guilty for forgetting about her.

"Um . . . it's starting." A small, delicate hand pointed to the sky.

Sure enough, I could already see something large hurtling towards us up in the darkening sky. All around me people began dropping there chatter as more and more noticed what Eloise had pointed out. Kara was practically bouncing where she stood as her chatter started up like it had never stopped.

In the two seconds it took for Beuxbatons pegasai to get close enough to actually identify, she had already rattled off several more of her crazy theories.

To be honest, she almost looked disappointed when the giant winged palominos finally alighted on Hogwarts's grounds with a crash, forcing the first three rows of students to scramble back to make room. The horses tossed their heads and stomped their hoofs as a massive powder blue carriage came bouncing to a stop behind them.

Like I had once discovered upon seeing this castle for the first time, there were some things that the books simply could not do justice.

"Beuxbatons." Cedric observed, still leaning on my head. "Has to be, blue's their school color."

Sure enough, Beuxbatons' golden crossed wand seal was there, displayed proudly on the carriage door. There was a moment where I could see it surprisingly clearly despite the waning light, then the door was thrown open and it was gone.

"Well, they certainly know how to make an entrance." I commented as a boy in pale blue robes hopped out, pulling a set of golden stairs down with him. A foot roughly the size of my nephew stepped out and the stairs sagged slightly. Soon the largest woman I'd ever seen was standing on our school grounds, larger than I could've ever imagined her being.

I, along with Kara and two of the boys in my year, gasped at the sight of her.

Madame Maxime, as I knew her to be, looked down at us from a slightly beaky nose. Her necklace of opals seemed to wink down us.

In the front, Dumbledore began to clap.

It was as if a spell was broken. Soon every student was following his lead and a rippling applause roared through the crowd. Some, like the Weasley twins, whistled and cheered. Most (like myself) just settled for standing on their tiptoes as they tried to get a better look.

The Headmistress of Beuxbatons smiled and walked towards the Headmaster of Hogwarts. When they were close, she extended a jeweled hand. So massive was she that Dumbledore barely had to bend at all in order to kiss it.

"My Dear Madame Maxime." Dumbledore said in a voice that I was surprised that I could hear. Was he using a Sonorous Charm maybe? "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dort." The deep voice of Madame Maxime was just as audible. Not a Sonorous Charm then. Was there a spell on the clearing as a whole? It'd explain why both school heads could be heard so clearly despite that neither seemed to be shouting. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you."

"My pupils." Madame Maxime waved a hand back towards the carriage. Following her gaze, the entire population of Hogwarts seemed to tear their eyes away from Maxime in favor of staring at the dozen or so shivering students who had emerged after her.

The boys and girls in blue were staring too, but not at us. Instead their eyes followed our castle walls up to the highest turret; apprehension crept onto their features.

"'as Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

At the name 'Karkaroff' Cedric shuddered and, even as the two Heads began to chatter idly about Maxime's horses, leaned in closer to me. "I've heard stories about him." His voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper. "Dad says he's a nasty one. Supposedly, he's the sole reason that Durmstrang actively teaches dark curses."

Kara, never one to be left out, leaned into our little circle as well. "I asked around about the different schools in second year. Durmstrang is a blood purist academy. Any muggleborns or half-bloods either have to go to Beuxbatons or never learn to control their magic at all."

We all shuttered at that one, having heard the stories of uncontrolled magic. As first and second years, we'd all had at least one teacher mention it in passing to discourage unsupervised spell-casting.

The stories weren't _pretty_.

"It will be attended to." Dumbledore was saying, his voice loud enough to draw our attention back up front. He bowed to Madame Maxime, apparently in response to something she'd already done.

"Come." The Headmistress nodded to her students and marched them up to the castle's front steps, the students of Hogwarts literally diving out of the way. No one wanted to be trampled by the no-nonsense giantess.

"Do you think her horses really drink Malt Whiskey?" Kara asked, apparently having paid more attention to the conversation then I had. How she did both that and gossiped with me and Cedric? Well . . . I guess I'll never know.

"Aren't you the one who still takes Care of Magical Creatures?" I asked, having dropped the class as soon as Kettleburn had retired. It was something that I'd done for my List just as much as for the fact that the new teacher liked playing with dangerous monster hybrids.

After all, Kettleburn might have had a bad habit of losing limbs, but he'd never had Hagrid's fondness for Skrewts.

"Yeah, but we don't cover Pegasai until the spring." Kara made a face. "You won't believe what he has us working on now."

Curious, I opened my mouth to ask, only to fall silent when Cedric held up a hand.

"Shhh," He said. "Do you hear that?"

I listened and found that there was indeed a sound in the air, one that seemed to come from the very dark night air before us. It sounded a bit like someone was trying to hoover up a pool, only it was many times louder.

Squinting, I stared down at the dark lake and wondered if the noise had anything to do with the pirate ship that I knew would emerge from it.

"The Lake!" Someone in Gryffindor yelled from my left. It looked . . . odd, now that I really looked. Was it bubbling? "Look at the lake!"

The bubbles I had seen were growing larger, large waves of muddy water were sent splashing onto shore. Whatever the disturbance was seemed to be focused more near the center of the lake. It looked almost like . . . a whirlpool?

Something was rising now, something that looked awfully like a mast . . .

"Bloody hell . . ." Cedric breathed. "Is that a ship?"

The ship, for Cedric was right, rose from the water slowly, almost as if it wanted to drag out the moment. When it had at last risen wholly from the lake, all of Hogwarts was left to admire what looked like a resurrected wreck. It gleamed in the moonlight and, even from my vantage point, I could see seaweed clinging to the dark wood.

Slower than it had risen, the great ghost ship sailed to shore, letting a plank fall with a 'thud' when it reached our dock. Already I could see the shapes of people begin emerging from the hold, made thick with layer upon layer of fur.

As I watched, one girl smiled and threw off what looked to be half her body weight in fur. Her joyous whoop echoed across the school grounds.

A man dressed in a fur that was much sleeker than that of the student's led the procession over the grounds and up towards where we stood at the doors.

"Dumbledore!" He called as he neared our Headmaster. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

_Ah_, I thought because this man was nowhere near as easily identifiable as Madame Maxime had been. _This must be Karkaroff_.

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore smiled amiably as he welcomed forward the man that I could only now tell was tall with white hair and a weak chin. When Karkaroff smiled, I saw a row of yellow teeth.

"Dear old Hogwarts," He looked up at our home with a smile that, to me at least, seemed forced. "How good it is to be here, how good . . . Viktor, come along, into the warmth . . . you don't mind Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold . . ."

A boy separated from his classmates and made his way forward at the beckoning of his Headmaster. He was lean with heavy features and a slightly large nose, none of which stopped me from feeling overwhelmingly excited when he passed us by.

I was an Irish fan, there was a flying figurine of their female chaser Mullet in my trunk, both my brother and father had bought me green flags, and there was even a hat covered with shamrocks hanging off my bed post. Yet, somehow those facts paled immensely in the face of standing ten bloody feet away from someone who had performed a _wronski feint_ not three months ago.

"That's . . ." Cedric grabbed my arm. He looked just as pale as I felt. "Merlin. That's Viktor Krum!"

oOoOoOo

Later, when Dumbledore had finally spoken loud enough for the masses to hear him over their excitement, we all marched as one towards the Great Hall. Krum's name was being repeated like a mantra in every direction. Many were frantically searching their bags for something for him to sign.

Not that I wasn't among them per se.

"Oh I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me-"

List or no, this was a _celebrity _we were talking about here.

Even Kara, the girl who hadn't been to a single Quidditch match willingly in six years, wasn't immune to the frenzy. She held up a shiny red and gold tube. "D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?"

"You mean _my _hat, and I doubt it. Somehow asking a _Bulgarian_ Seeker to sign an _Irish _hat doesn't sound all that smart."

Cedric rolled his eyes from where he walked next to us. "I can't believe it." He shook his head in my direction. "You're the last person that I'd pin as a hopeless fangirl."

I shot him a look, particularly at the quill he was subtly trying to hide from view. "Like you're one to talk. And I'm not hopeless!"

Entering the Great Hall, we split off from the hoard to sit at our usual spot on the Hufflepuff Table. The Beuxbatons students, I noticed, were already seated a table over at Ravenclaw. They looked somewhat miserable, shivering through their silks like they were. All of them clung to shawl and scarf alike, as if simply grasping the material would make it warmer.

"Wonder where they're going to sit." Cedric said, eyeing the Durmstrang students still gathered around the doors. For a moment they seemed unsure, but then one broke off to the Slytherin table and the rest followed. "Never mind."

"Are they going to sleep in the castle?" Kara asked, watching the Durmstrang students intently. I wonder if she noticed how much happier this lot seemed. Most of them had gone the way of the girl I'd first noticed on the boat and stripped off nearly all their furs.

"I don't think so." Cedric replied. "Not unless Hogwarts has guest quarters that we don't know about, which isn't impossible."

Filch was putting up chairs for the guest teachers up front. My stomach growled. Hopefully it wouldn't be long before we got to the food part of the evening.

"It's more likely that they'll just sleep in their ship and carriage." Resting my head on my hands, I stared down at the golden plates that only came out on special occasions. Perhaps I could will the food into existence if I stared hard enough. "It's not like they're not big enough."

Finally, after what seemed to be a small eternity of everyone sorting themselves out, the staff entered. Lastly came the three Heads of the schools. At the sight of Madame Maxime, every Beuxbatons student suddenly scrambled to their feet, nearly toppling over a few unsuspecting Ravenclaws in the process. They didn't sit down again until Maxime was seated herself, settled into a massive chair that seemed to have been brought in specifically for her.

Dumbledore, still standing, stepped forward and every side conversation instantly stopped.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts, and - most particularly – guests," Dumbledore paused to beam at the students of the visiting schools. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beuxbatons girls behind me gave a derisive laugh.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

He sat down and the golden platters before us were suddenly overflowing with food. Hungry and uncaring, I took a bit of everything whether I recognized it or not.

My enthusiasm wasn't shared. Some of the dishes, such as the blood red pudding that Kara was currently poking, weren't exactly _local_.

The rest of the dinner went much like that actually, with either Cedric or Kara poking some dish and wondering at the edibility of it. Most of the time I'd point out a dish I'd already tried and liked, other times I'd point out a dish and wait evilly while they then proceeded to scrape it off their tongues.

At one point a Beuxbatons boy had gotten up and stolen our Bouillabaisse, though for what I couldn't tell. A girl who looked suspiciously veela-ish had already gone to the Gryffindor table for the same thing.

"Huh," Cedric said just as dessert popped into existence. He was looking at the staff table. "I wonder why Bagman is here."

"You know him?" I followed his gaze and found myself staring at a slightly pudgy man with thinning blonde hair. Next to him was another unfamiliar face that I could only assume was Crouch.

"Yeah, he's a friend of my dad's. He's head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

"So maybe he helped plan the Tournament and was invited as a courtesy." Kara cut in. "That's what would happen if this was football."

Cedric blinked and, for a second, looked both confused and curious. "What's _foo ball_?"

"Football," I corrected automatically, even as I knew that what Kara was talking about was closer to soccer than it was to what I had once considered football. "It's a muggle sport. They kick a ball around a field and try to score goals."

And just like that Cedric's curiosity was gone. With a "Sounds boring" he turned back to his desserts.

Not that he didn't have a point. When put next to a Tournament filled with dragons, mermen, sphinxes and dark overlords, soccer did seem a little dull.

Kara huffed but let the subject drop. She wasn't exactly _sporty_, muggle or otherwise, so I don't think she really cared if Cedric wanted to know more about the subject or not. While she was also a refined gossiper, she knew better than to continue topics that her audience had no interest in.

So instead she struck up a conversation on the Tournament and just like that Cedric was focused again. After all, as a possible contender himself, the Golden Boy was all ears when it came to this particular brand of gossip.

We spent the rest of dessert hypothesizing over Dumbledore's mystery judge, comparing who we thought were hopeful Hogwarts' champions, and eying the foreign schools for who we thought would be _their_ champion. By the time the plates were cleared for good, we'd all come up with something interesting. The best was Kara's, who apparently thought something like a simple signup sheet was too dull for Hogwarts.

No, only the student who could somehow steal a golden goblet from a giant, brave the treacherous forbidden forest, and swim to the bottom of the lake to give said goblet to a mermen chieftain would be worthy enough to be considered our champion.

"The moment has come." Said Dumbledore's voice. Somewhere when I wasn't looking, he'd stood up and was now smiling out at us. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket -"

Over at the Gryffindor table, I could see the Weasley Twins leaning so far forward in their seats that they were nearly falling out.

"- just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation," there was some polite clapping, "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

The applause for Bagman was much louder than it had been for Crouch, though this fact in itself could've been for many reasons. He'd been a pretty good Beater, for one. Add that to how much friendlier than Crouch he seemed and you probably had a pretty good motive to the loud roar currently echoing off our Great Hall's walls.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued once we'd grown quiet again, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

The crowd went still. Dumbledore waved a hand towards where Filch was hiding in the corner. "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

An extremely old wooden chest was brought forward and laid gently on the table in front of Dumbledore. It was heavily encrusted with gems.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways. Their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

And though nobody else seemed to be breathing, Cedric was practically glowing with excitement beside me. I sent him a wary look and knew exactly what he was thinking.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore was perfectly calm, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Our Headmaster then took out the Elder Wand and tapped it three times against the lid of the casket. When it opened, he tucked the wand away and reached in. What he pulled out was, to all extents and purpose, just a large wooden cup. It would have been completely ordinary had it not been filled with crackling blue flames.

The casket was closed and the goblet was placed on top. For a brief moment, Dumbledore simply allowed us all to look upon his impartial judge.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

And with that, our Headmaster bowed out and the spell was broken. The chatter that had broken before started up again and people began to move. Cedric grabbed my arm before I could push out of my seat.

"Julia," He said, "Come with me tonight."

"Tonight?" I looked at my watch. It was late. "Go with you where?"

Cedric just grinned and for a moment I thought he wouldn't answer. And then he _did _speak, saying exactly what I only just realized I'd been dreading for a while now.

"The Entrance Hall of course, after everyone's cleared out. I want to put my name in the Goblet of Fire."


	7. Chapter 6

_**A/n: I don't own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

Standing to the side in the dark Entrance Hall, I watched as Cedric strode towards the crackling goblet. He stopped to toe the edge of Dumbledore's golden age line. There was a deep breath and I could see his hand tighten.

The slip of parchment he held, the same one he'd shown me in the kitchens, crackled under the pressure.

For a different, entirely more terrifying reason than the confident Hufflepuff before me, I took a breath as well.

This was the moment of truth . . . for him . . . for me . . . and for the story I had sworn to never change.

Cedric stepped over the line, looked back to make sure I was watching, and shot me a nervous grin when he saw I was. He took the steps necessary and raised his hand to hover briefly over the goblet's rim.

"This is it." His words were whispered and I found myself unsure if it was the effect that made the moment hauntingly eerie, or if the eerie effect of the moment was what caused him to whisper at all.

The parchment fell, and the written 'Cedric Diggory – Hogwarts' disappeared. The blue flames sparked red and I found that I couldn't look away.

Horror.

Guilt.

Fear.

I felt like I had watched someone hang their own noose.

"Well, I guess that's that then." Cedric reappeared at my side and only then did I realize that I was still staring at the Goblet of Fire. He shot me a worried look. "You alright, Julia? You look a bit pale."

_Pale? Yeah, that sounded about right . . ._

"I'm fine." I tried to smile, to look encouraging, but my current mood made it fall flat. I'd feel better later, when I could push the guilt of this moment aside again.

It was hard, sticking to a resolve I'd made nearly two decades ago. Sometimes . . . especially with the more recent development that was Cedric . . . I found myself slipping.

And yet . . .

_Screaming masses, flashes of green, people with familiar faces lying too still, skulls and snakes in the sky, little girl eyes taking it all in, a much older mind balking at the horror of it all._

And yet I knew what lay on the wrong side of this war.

What cou- _would_ happen again if I slipped . . . if I made so much as _one_ mistake. Dark times were right around the corner after all. I knew who's attention I'd have to avoid.

Cedric eyed me and I knew he wasn't fooled. However whatever comment he could've made went unsaid. Perhaps he could tell I didn't want to talk about it, or maybe he could just hear the footsteps. Whatever the reason, he said nothing and we were suddenly no longer alone.

Anthony Goldstein, a Ravenclaw prefect in my year, came to a running halt not far from where we stood. He looked somewhat harassed.

"Cedric! Thank Merlin, I've been looking for another prefect everywhere!"

And just like that, the serious silence broke. Cedric turned towards Goldstein in a way that almost made me want to giggle, despite my mood. He was in 'Prefect Mode'.

"Goldstein? What's the matter? Has there been an emergency?"

The Ravenclaw rubbed at the bags forming beneath his eyes. "No, nothing like that. A group of Durmstrang students somehow got separated and ended up wandering the dungeons. I need someone to help me herd them back to their ship."

This time I really did let out a laugh, though it was more of a snort than a giggle. It really did figure that the foreigners would get lost on the very first day.

"I'm on it." Cedric turned back to me and offered me a sheepish smile. "Sorry Julia but you're going to have to head back alone. Here-" There was a brief pause as he unclasped his Prefect's badge and pressed it into my palm. "Take this. It's almost curfew so this will help if you don't make it back in time."

"Cedric, I don't need-" I stopped when I realized that I probably _did_ need the badge. The windows to the hall were dark and we'd been here long enough that I'd get a detention if I was caught without it. Protesting just for the sake of protesting was silly. "Right, thanks then."

"Don't mention it."

There was a wave, and then Cedric was off to the Dungeons' stairwell. Goldstein, already there and impatient, waved him forward hurriedly.

For a brief moment after they'd left, I just stood there, alone in the Entrance Hall with no particular rush to be anywhere else. And then it hit me . . .

_Great, now I'm going to have to find another way back._

Because the quickest way back to the dorms was . . . the way Cedric had just gone.

Not that he wouldn't understand if I followed them for a bit, he would, I knew that. It was just that, after all that guilt and heavy, weighty emotion that had gone unsaid between us, I found that I really didn't mind the thought of getting some air away from Cedric for a while.

And it wasn't like there weren't other entrances to the dungeons.

The closest, the one that usually lead to the Potions' classrooms, wasn't too far away so I headed in that direction. Sure, I would have to trek around both Snape's office and the Slytherin Common Room and sure, it would most likely keep me out well past curfew . . .

But hey, Cedric _had _given me his badge. Might as well use it.

So I walked, and, since there was no one else still out, I did so in silence. And then, a few hallways short of the Slytherin's dungeon, the silence broke. In the distance I could hear _something_ and though I could recognize that, whatever it was, it was foreign, I didn't actually hear it for what it was until I'd drawn closer to the noise.

Curses, and not the magical- or English for that matter- kind. _Was that Russian?_

_Was this where the Durmstrang students had gotten lost? No, it couldn't be, Cedric and Goldstein wouldn't have taken the Kitchen Stairwell if it was._

The cursing was getting louder, accompanied frequently by a muffled but consistent banging. Was someone thumping their head against the wall?

An angry faced, red robed boy with food stains down his front marched around the corner, clearly frustrated. And though he had been stomping and dragging his feet, he stopped dead when he saw me standing in the hallway.

Recognizing the robes for what they were, I suddenly came to the conclusion that I had been wrong. This boy was from Durmstrang. Judging by the fact that he was currently on the other side of the school from both the Entrance Hall and his Ship, he was also very, _very _lost.

I stared, he stared, and a fly nearly flew into his openly gaping mouth. Finally he spoke.

"Hogvarts student! Finally! I vandered maze school for hours!"

Suddenly there were two large, heavy hands pressing down on my shoulders as the Durmstrang boy drew much too far into my personal bubble. _Too close, he's much too close. _

"Please, Hogvarts student! Please help me! I am afraid I am very lost."

He leaned forward and, briefly, I felt horribly trapped. He was bigger than me, in both height and muscle, it was only natural.

Then I saw his face, saw the overwhelming relief, and realized that what he was doing was only natural too. If it was me, the poor stranger would have been glomped the moment the 'Oh Merlin I'm Saved!' feeling kicked in.

"Hogvarts student?"

"Oh, right." Shaking my head, I forced myself to focus on the distressed Durmstrang student in front of me. He was actually kind of cute, what with the shaggy brown-black hair and shallow grey eyes. "You need someone to show you the way back?"

He nodded eagerly, actually letting go of me so that he could shake my hand dead with sheer excitement. Coupled with his bulk and over-exuberant personality, he was vaguely reminiscent of an overly friendly bear.

"Oh yes, yes very much so! Thank you! Thank you Hogvarts studen-"

"Julia." I interrupted with just a bit of my slight irritation shining through. Being called 'Hogwarts Student' was beginning to get old.

"Vhat?"

"My name isn't 'Hogwarts Student'." I clarified. "It's Julia, Julia Whitman. If I'm going to show you around, at least call me by my name."

"Of course Hogvarts- no, _Jule-ya_." He said my name almost like he was testing it. With his thick accent, it came out a bit warped. "I mean no offence. How rude of me to not offer my name upon our meeting. I am Mikhail Poliakoff."

The boy-bear before me bowed low, and I found myself pondering if this was common courtesy where he was from. When he grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips I decided that, if his manners were common, they were decidedly on the Pureblood's side of etiquette. I'd never seen a muggle, polite or otherwise, do something so old-fashioned.

That didn't mean I didn't blush to my toes though.

"_Okay_! That's enough of that!" I all but squeaked as my hand was unceremoniously wrenched from his grip. Quickly, before he could get offended, I coughed and forced my voice back to a more normal pitch. "Uh . . . I mean, why spend time on niceties? We need to get you back to your ship, right?"

"Oh yes, yes you are quite right _Jule-ya." _His confusion melted away, though at the same time he didn't look happy at the reminder. That was . . . odd. He'd practically jumped for joy when I'd offered to help him before.

"Right . . ." I shook my head and decided that whatever the reason behind his odd behavior was, it wasn't really any of my business. "Follow me then."

After that I think I slipped into a mode much like Cedric's 'Prefect Mode' from earlier. Only this was something that'd probably be better classified as 'Guide Mode'. It wasn't intentional, not exactly. It was just that, as we walked, I found myself compelled to point out whatever I could remember about our surroundings.

Of course, the effect fell a bit flat when the best I could really do was 'Oh and that's another empty classroom . . . we don't really do much in there.'

Thankfully, Mikhail didn't seem to suffer from the same brand of social awkwardness that I did. He loved to talk, but not in a way that was self-absorbed, arrogant or even particularly annoying. The way he talked reminded me of a little kid giving a stranger a hug.

Like he simply had something to say and didn't understand why you shouldn't have it too.

Eventually, after a few more awkward attempts on my end, I just gave up and let him have the reins of the conversation. He didn't seem to mind doing all the talking, in fact it was more like he reveled in it. To fill in the spaces left by me, he began broadening his stories, adding more detail and adventure.

And what he spoke of, his country, his school, his family, were nowhere near as boring as I'd feared they be. Even the mundane stuff, such as his sister pushing him into a lake when he was three, was somehow made exciting by him.

I was so engrossed actually, that I barely noticed where we had ended until I looked up. The towering doors of the Entrance Hall were _right there_.

A trip that was nearly ten minutes of walking, made into a blink of an eye through sheer power of voice. _This guy_ . . . I thought as I shot the grinning boy a somewhat dazed look. _Should become a storyteller._

"So . . . this is the way out. Just go down the grounds a little ways and you should see your ship." I said after the silence had stretched a little too long. For the second time tonight I noticed the nearly perpetual grin of the other boy falter a bit and, also for the second time, I found myself extremely curious as to why.

Only this time the curiosity wasn't held back.

"Is something wrong?"

"Vhat?" Mikhail blinked at me. "Nothing is vrong."

"Oh." Why did I feel slightly disappointed? Had I really expected a complete stranger to tell me, of all people, his secrets? "You just looked worried, is all. I thought you'd be more excited."

Surprisingly, Mikhail laughed. The sound, much like his stories, came out in a richly deep baritone. "Voodn't you be vorried _Jule-ya_? You forget that I am in trouble. Did you not vonder vhy I vas in dungeons?"

Of course I'd wondered, briefly, before I'd dismissed it as just the foreign students getting lost. But hadn't their Headmaster already lead them all back to their ship hours ago? Why was Mikhail in the dungeons at all? And, for that matter, where were the others that Goldstein had hinted at?

Suddenly I understood exactly why Mikhail seemed so put off at the thought of returning. I would be too if I was about to be caught doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. And he _would_ be caught, there was no denying that. He'd be sneaking back at too late an hour for it not to raise an eyebrow or two.

My eyebrow was certainly raised and I had a distinct feeling I was adapting the 'incredulous pose' that I'd long associated with Cedric. "So _that's_ why. Out of curiosity's sake, what _did _you do?"

He laughed again and this time I could detect the traces of mischief present in his eyes. "I vondered vhen you vood ask. Ve vere looking for your Kitchens."

"The Kitchens?" Eyeing the foodstains on Mikhail's robes, I wondered if it was physically possible for him to still be hungry after that feast. I sure wasn't, and I didn't look like I'd inhaled half the main course. "You wanted _more _food?"

"No, no more food. Ve had plenty. Vhat ve vanted vas vine. _Mulled _vine."

Mulled . . . vines? Maybe I misheard him, which was always a possibility with that accent. I couldn't have heard him right, mulled vines sounded anything but appetizing.

That aside, there was something else about his words that bothered me . . . "Who's 'we'?" Goldstein _had _said there was a group. "Who else was with you? Are they still down there?"

Because even though I had long since hardened my conscience, leaving foreign students to be lost all night didn't quite sit right.

"'Ve' vas myself and friends. I do not think they are lost. It vas I vho vas lost. They are in ship by now."

Translation: He wandered off and they gave up looking. By the tone of his voice, that wasn't an uncommon occurrence either. Just how much did this guy get lost?

I looked at my watch and realized with a low whistle that it was actually past midnight, well past the Hufflepuff curfew. If I was caught now, badge or no, there might be some serious consequences. Ending this . . . whatever it was moment with Mikhail however . . .

Well . . . I wasn't sure quite how to do that.

Thankfully the Durmstrang boy seemed to read my mind. Without so much as a 'if I may' I was suddenly wrapped up in a sheer Russian bear hug, complete with feet being lifted from the ground and everything. I might have made a strangled 'eep'-like sound but, to be honest, I can't quite say for sure if I did.

After all, the fact that my personal bubble was being horribly violated was a bit more pressing at the moment.

He released me just as suddenly as he'd hugged me, and it was only then that I realized that the hug itself really hadn't been all that long. Barely long enough for me to process what had happened, actually.

"Thank you for your velp, _Jule-ya_." Mikhail had his hand on the door. Had I really not noticed him moving? Then again, that hug of his had made it somewhat hard to think.

"You are one of Badgers, am I right?"

Badgers? Oh he means Hufflepuffs, I didn't know he knew the houses. I nodded dumbly and a large grin split his face in two. Mikhail didn't seem to mind that he'd rendered me speechless, in fact, I think he enjoyed it.

"Good, good I vill sit with you."

The door closed behind him and I, left standing in the Entrance Hall alone for the second time that night, still took a fair bit longer than I should've to process that he'd left at all.

Finally I shook my head to clear it and turned to head back to the dorms. It wasn't until I was back in my own bed that I found myself thinking clearly again. Even then, there was only one thing that really stayed in my head for long.

Durmstrang boys- if they were all the constantly chattering, directionally challenged, and personal space invading types- were very odd indeed.

oOoOoOoOo

The next day, a Saturday, didn't really see me in the daylight until well past noon. I'd had a very late night, one that resulted with me practically dropping dead when I'd finally crawled beneath my covers. It was only reasonable that I'd sleep in, just as it was reasonable for both Cedric and Kara to take one look at me and allow me to do so.

That didn't mean that, after waking up well after both breakfast and lunch, I was in a particularly good mood about it.

But I have good, reliable friends who know only too well how I can be when I don't get my breakfast. So good, actually, that Kara somehow smuggled Cedric into the Girls dorms with her so that they could deliver my breakfast together.

Which, of course, led to the two of them bursting into the room. Kara practically dragged Cedric behind her. Of course, as logic dictates, they happened to catch me right as I was returning from the shower. As logic also dictates, the door opened the moment I began to take off my towel. . .

Kara was the first one through, but I doubt she really registered what the problem was. We _were_ roommates, after all. Kara, myself, and even timid little Eloise had all gotten accidental glimpses every now and again. Not that it mattered really, we were all girls. It wasn't like we hadn't seen it before.

Cedric . . . was not a girl.

He was also slowly turning very, _very _red.

When I hurriedly fixed my towel, the first to react, it was like some sort of intangible 'deer in the headlights' moment had shattered. In short, that was when all hell broke loose.

There was screaming, a _lot_ of screaming, and mostly on my part. I wasn't thinking, not really, I was just acting on instinct. Something told me to get the _male_ as far away from me as possible, so I did. Shoes, and anything I could get my hands on for that matter, were beamed Cedric's direction in a near constant hailstorm.

One, a silver 6-inch heel that was definitely Kara's, nearly reamed Ceric in the head.

Fortunately for him, Cedric fled the room faster than I could run in a towel.

I calmed down once he left, enough to stop throwing things and get dressed anyhow. Kara uncurled from where she had nearly bust a gut laughing about then, so rather than throw something at _her_ for _laughing_, I sent her after Cedric.

I did it in the spirit of apology, because even I would never be dense enough to believe that had somehow been planned. Cedric was a perpetually nice guy, I'd have gone after him myself if I didn't think he'd bolt the moment he saw me coming.

There was a knock on the door and Kara entered, this time all but throwing a reluctant Cedric in first so she could slam and lock the door behind them.

With the audible 'click', Cedric got a lot paler.

_Nice job Kara, you just made this into a horror movie._

"It's alright Cedric," Like he had somehow morphed into a wary animal, I held my palms up in the universal 'I mean no harm' gesture. "I'm not mad anymore."

"Oh," Cedric blinked. He glanced at me and, for a brief second I thought he would say something more. Then his eyes widened and suddenly he was looking anywhere but at me. No longer pale, he was now fast becoming redder than before.

I flushed too. It didn't take a genius to guess what he was remembering.

Silence, gloriously awkward, mortifying, embarrassing _silence_. And then . . .

"I'msosorryIsawthatIdidn'tmeantoo. . ."

"Ididn'tmeantothrowshoesatyouIwasjustsooo . . ."

We stopped at the same time and, also at the same time, realized that what we'd spoken was in sinc.

I took a large, calming breath. When I was once again capable of speaking sentences that had separate words and pauses, I tried again. "You first."

_Well . . . at least it was intelligible. The apology itself should probably be the next step._

Cedric scratched his nose and somehow made the gesture look incredibly sheepish. "I'm sorry." He said at last. "For looking, I mean. I didn't mean to, I swear! They were just there and- no, wait I didn't mean that! I meant that I'm _sorry_, so very, very,_ very_ sorry!" He trailed off again.

Was it even humanly possible to blush that much?

Still, I laughed a little, despite the awkward conversation. He really was just too funny when he got all riled up like this. "When I said it's alright Cedric, I meant it. It's _alright_. It was an accident, there was no way you could've known and, if anything it's Kara's fault for not knocking in the first place."

"Hey, I resent that!"

"Anyway, you have nothing to apologize for. I should be the one apologizing. I nearly skewered you with a _heel_. Imagine what would've happened if I'd actually hit you! Those things can do some serious damage!"

This time it was Cedric who had a laugh to spare. The color was actually fading now, something that had to be a good sign. He even smiled, if only just a little. "You have really bad aim."

"As far as you know. Lucky for you I wasn't really trying to hit you. Drive you out of the room, yes. Maim you brutally, not really." The laughter between us had evolved into a sort of giggle/snort fest that, for the life of me, I just couldn't _stop_. Cedric was certainly faring no better.

Finally, after we'd both calmed down to the occasional giggle, I stuck out my hand.

"Sorry you had to see that. Friends?"

He took it. "Were we ever not?"

"No, I guess not."

He grinned at me, I grinned at him, and Kara gathered both of us into a sort of impromptu group hug.

"Great!" Kara was studiously ignoring our struggles. Struggles that, may I add, weren't really getting us far. I'd never noticed before, but Kara was stronger than she looked. "Now let's skip all the awkward boring talk and get to the best part!"

With a very wicked grin, Kara was pushing off from our weird huddle in one quick, fluid like movement. The sheer force from her push sent both Cedric and I staggering. She said something, but it was only as I realized that Cedric was falling _towards_ me that I processed what it was.

"Time for the make-up Kiss!"

_God-Dammit Kara!_

Seconds before he got too close, before his face got _too close_, I ducked.

I still got hit by the full force that was Cedric, mind you, it was just more of the me head-butting his stomach kind. There was no lip-on-lip action anyhow. Kara looked disappointed. Cedric just groaned in pain.

Then again, I don't think he'd caught Kara's declaration. If he had, there would definitely be a whole lot more blushing than what was currently going on.

"Hmph," Kara really did look upset with me. "Never mind then. I'm going to go see who put their name in the Goblet of Fire. I'll see you at dinner."

She spun on her heel, faltered a bit when she had to unlock the door, and strode out with a flourish.

Cedric, halfway through the process of hauling himself off the floor, gave her a weird look as she left. Pulling me up with him, he brushed me almost subconsciously.

"What's her problem?"

_Her problem_, I thought but most definitely didn't say. _Is that she constantly sees romance where none exists_.

"I'm not really sure. You know Kara."

The knowing sort of noise and nod Cedric gave me spoke wonders. He really _did_ know, though in reality we'd only really became friends a week ago.

Just when, I wonder, had he became such a firm part of our group?


	8. Chapter 7

_**A/n: I do not own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

A few hours after Kara's botched romancing attempt, Cedric and I found ourselves down in the common room alone. We weren't doing anything particularly noticeable, just playing a few rounds of Wizard's Chess on a set that Cedric had seemingly pulled from thin air.

It took a while but, after the third game lost, I eventually looked up and realized something. The common room, empty when we'd settled down, was still eerily deserted. It'd been four hours and there were a _lot _of socially awkward Hufflepuffs.

On a normal day there's at least _someone_ trying to hide by the fire.

"Hey, isn't it a bit too quiet in here?"

Cedric glanced up from his play and gave me a quiet laugh. "Why wouldn't it be? The whole school's practically camped upstairs."

"Upstairs? Why would they-" Suddenly I remembered the shiny cup of death that was currently displayed in the Entrance Hall. Of course everyone and their dog would want to have a look at it. "Oh, that's why."

Laughing for real now, Cedric shook his head at me. "You know, there are times that I swear you have the memory of a goldfish. And then I remember that you had avoiding me in your head for over a month. Do you even realize how hard to understand you are?"

"Me? Hard to understand? You must be joking." I had spent the past six years of my life purposefully being the most boring person in Hogwarts after all. "You're the one with the exciting title of 'Hufflepuff Quidditch Star'. I'm pretty boring in comparison."

Well . . . I was to Cedric at least. He didn't need to know about the whole 'inter-dimensional traveler' bit.

"You don't have to have a title to be interesting Julia." He smiled and . . . for the briefest fraction of a second, I swore I saw something unreadable in his expression.

It was gone before I could truly say if I saw it, if only because the sound of the barrels opening made Cedric turn his head. I opened my mouth and then, unsure if I should comment or not, closed it again.

Kara poked her head into the common room. When she saw us sitting in the corner, the resulting grin nearly split her head in two.

"Great! You guys are here! I was worried I'd have to look for you."

"We never left." I supplied helpfully. Knowing that whatever Kara wanted would probably include movement on my part, I pulled myself to my feet. "What'd you need?"

Cedric followed my lead and the chess set, complete with scowling and protesting pieces, was unceremoniously shoved into his bag.

"We're going to the infirmary!" My friend cheered. For someone who just suggested visiting a sick bay, she sounded remarkably happy.

Perfectly in sync, Cedric and I rose a brow together.

"Is someone sick?" I asked. It was painfully obvious that Kara was most definitely not the one in need of medical attention. Racking my brain for anyone Kara could possibly want to visit, I came up short.

"Nope." She chirped before suddenly aiming a stern look in my direction. "But if he asks, we're concerned well-wishers. Got it?"

He? Since when did Kara have a 'he'?

"Ok, I give. Who are we visiting and why?"

Kara beamed, if possible even brighter than before. "We're visiting Summers of course! He's in the infirmary because he tried to cross the age line with an aging spell. Dumbledore's spell gave him a beard."

"Summers?" The name was utterly and completely unfamiliar, though the beard thing did ring a bell. Hadn't something like that been in the books?

"Jason Summers." That was Cedric, he was looking at Kara with no small bit of confusion. "He's one of my teammates, plays Chaser. I didn't know you knew him."

Kara just giggled and with that I realized I knew exactly what was going on. She had been this way before, after all. In fact, she'd once done the exact same thing whenever _Cedric's_ name was mentioned. Of course I'd noticed her interest in him all but disappear lately, I'd just contributed it to her getting to know him as a friend. Apparently that wasn't quite the case.

Kara had a crush. Judging by the goofy look on her face, it was pretty big too.

It certainly explained the sudden fascination with the infirmary. After all, what better way to get closer to a crush then visiting them in their time of need?

There was a sudden urge to sigh, if only because Kara's insane crush related missions rarely ended _well_. Once, back when her crush had been a Slytherin Quidditch Player named Warrington, we'd sat together through three practices pelted with virtual sheets of rain. When she finally brought up the nerve to approach him, the git had pushed her down and called her a mudblood to her face.

Kara had cried for weeks and I, for the unfortunate crime of discovering a new hex on Warrington's face, had landed a week of scrubbing cauldrons with Snape.

"Well?" Kara asked, her voice bringing me firmly back to reality. She stood at the door with her arms crossed, now far more irritated then excited. Cedric seemed to blink back to reality besides me and, by the look he shot me, it seemed he'd come to the same conclusion about Kara's crush that I had. "Are you guys coming or not?"

"Yeah," Because there was no way I'd let Kara walk into another incident like that without back up. "Let's just hope he can rock that beard well enough for it to be worth it." Because there was also no way I'd let her escape without some teasing for it.

She blushed and stammered, just like I predicted she would, maybe even more so when Cedric decided to put his two words in. After another ten minutes or so of tag team teasing from the two of us, she sped up just barely to escape us. It didn't work, we sped up too. Eventually we ended up practically racing each other through the halls. Teasing forgotten, we raced into the sick ward with absolutely no idea how we had gotten to racing at all.

I won, but that wasn't really a good thing. After all, crashing into one very solid chest might sound good in theory, but in reality it hurt very, _very _much.

In the movies, especially in the ones I had once watched in another life, they made this sort of thing seem sweet, romantic even. It was never explained how the cartilage of your nose crashing into muscle and bone could make it feel like it was breaking, or how it was usually the smaller body that went ricocheting off the larger one at the same speeds it had crashed into it with.

Thankfully the ricocheting I did didn't quite go to the extent where the back of my head met the very solid floor. Instead whoever the chest belonged to reached down and caught me.

For a very brief second, I marveled at how some movie scenes really could come true. Then the hands that had caught me tossed me over their shoulder and darted back into the infirmary. Cedric protested, _loudly_, but I didn't quite catch what he said. All I could hear was my captor's equally loud voice shouting in my ear.

"Fred! You'll never believe it! I _caught _her!"

_Well shit. Five guesses who._

In a flying rush George, for that was who he had to be, ran all the way down to the last bed before unceremoniously dumping me onto it. A very wicked and very identical redhead grabbed the curtains that were usually used for privacy and swept them closed. When all that was done the two moved to stand together. Like the twins they were, they grinned in sync. Like the _Weasleys_ that they were, they looked like pure mischief while doing it.

And I . . . well I think I was in shock. Staring dumbly seemed to be the extent of what I was capable of.

_Was it me, or was that white stubble on their chins?_

On the other side of the hall, Cedric's voice shouted something before a quick reprimand from Kara shut him up. In the gap in the curtains behind Fred I could see them. Kara, after a brief wave in my direction, dragged Cedric over to another bed. Unlike her, he at least looked guilty about leaving me to my fate.

"We caught you!" The twins chorused at me. They were practically singing. "Now you have to let us do it!"

I sighed, apparently finding my voice at last. It was almost eerie how much I found the need to sigh lately. Couldn't people find it in them to be a bit less exhausting?

"I know I'm going to regret this . . . but do what exactly?" Was I the only one who thought they should use a different word choice? 'Do it' just sounded bad on so many levels.

And for that matter, what _were_ they talking about? Had they actually had a _reason _for bombarding me during class?

The twins blinked at me and their smug grins fell a bit. To be honest, they actually looked surprised.

"Wait." Fred said. "You didn't know? We thought that was why you were avoiding us."

"Well I . . ." Explaining my tendency to avoid people was hard, even after that whole episode with Cedric. An episode that, come to think of it, I'd never provided an excuse for either. "I don't like it when people draw attention to me."

"We want to borrow your owl." George finally clarified for me. "Pig didn't really have the effect we were going for."

"You want to . . . borrow _Bubbles_?" Were these two insane? They must be. After all, the display they had seen had been both violent and, at the same time, remarkably mild for my pet. What sane person would _willingly _expose themselves to that owl?

Well, besides me of course. Though, on some level at least, I'm not entirely sure if I qualify as sane.

"Just for a bit, we promise. You'll get him back with every feather fully in place."

"Or at least most of them anyway, Pig came back a bit singed."

"Singed? What in Merlin's name are you two talking about?" And, better question, were they really asking me to send _my_ owl to get _blown up_? I didn't care who they were and I most definitely didn't care that they were on my list, if they got my owl hurt, I'd hex them to hell and back.

"Well . . . yeah. We . . . er . . . _might _have attached a howler to him." Fred had the grace to look sheepish.

"And Bag- _someone_ might have left it on him." George just looked mad.

_That was . . . cruel, extremely and heart-breakingly so. Everyone knew that Howlers blew up if you didn't open them in time._

Suddenly I was just as mad as George, maybe even madder. The glare I sent in the Twins direction could have melted ice. "If you think I'm going to let you get Bubbles hurt . . ."

"No! We don't think that!" Fred cut in hurriedly before taking a deep, calming breath. "Look, we wouldn't ask if we thought Bubbles was going to get hurt. We're asking because Pig was just too high strung and friendly. He didn't have the mean streak necessary to _make_ them take that letter."

_Ah, now it makes sense._

"So _that's_ why you want him."

The twins just nodded, their faces a strange mix between angry and eager.

I sighed and, for the briefest of seconds, seriously reconsidered what I was about to do. And then I remembered what this mystery person had done to Pig. Someone like that deserved to have Bubbles sicked on them.

"Fine, you can use him." Rummaging in my bag briefly, I pulled out a packet of seed and handed it over to Fred. "If you give him that and tell him I sent you, he'll probably let you give him the letter."

Pulling myself to my feet, I placed one hand on the curtain before turning around to face the Weasley Twins again.

"And boys?"

They looked at me. George, halfway through a 'thank you', shut his mouth.

"Tell him to be as vicious as possible. Someone who could do that to an owl doesn't deserve to see his nice side."

oOoOoOoOo

The first thing I noticed when I entered the Great Hall was the atmosphere. Unlike how it usually was, loud and full of chatter, now their seemed to be an almost physical sense of nervousness. It wasn't bad and, if this was a day closer to Exams, it wouldn't be particularly unusual either. For a feast day though, for _Halloween_, it was beyond strange. People almost seemed eager to bypass the food altogether.

I knew why of course. Every pair of eyes, even mine, were guilty of glancing at the Goblet of Fire at one point. It had been moved and now stood directly in front of Dumbledore's seat at the head table.

In short, it was now impossible _not_ to notice.

Spotting Cedric sitting alone at our usual spot, I hurried over and plopped down across from him. Kara wasn't there, or at least she wasn't in her seat. At my questioning glance, Cedric nodded in the direction of the far end of the Hufflepuff table.

I followed his gaze and, sure enough, caught sight of Kara's bouncing blond curls. She was sitting with a boy I vaguely recognized as one of the boys in our year. Better yet, they were both laughing hysterically, nearly falling from the bench entirely as they grasped each other for support.

Turning back to Cedric, I found that I was grinning. To be honest, I think I was just glad that she hadn't suffered any form of rejection during my episode with the twins. "Is that Summers?"

He nodded. Despite the fact that he looked just as nervous as the rest of the kids in the hall, a small smirk was twitching on the corner of his lips. "Yeah, they hit it off right away in the infirmary, especially after I introduced them. Did you know he's in your year?"

"I do now. Does that mean our group just got smaller?"

Cedric laughed and this time smiled for real. "I don't think so, at least not forever. As far as I know, most of Jason's friends were older. They all graduated last year. I'd bet he's looking for a new group."

Chuckling, I shook my head with a rather fond smile in Kara's direction. I'd known her long enough to be able to predict what she'd do next. "So he'll be sitting over here by the end of the week?"

"Most likely." There was a pause as Cedric's mood faltered a bit. Briefly he seemed unsure, then he cleared his throat. "So . . . what did the Weasley Twins want?"

"Nothing much, just to borrow Bubbles."

"They had to kidnap you to do that?" Cedric looked incredulous. "What, is asking too normal for them?"

I shrugged. "Probably, they do tend to think outside the box. I wouldn't put too much thought into it Cedric." I held out an arm like it somehow could prove my point. "See? No harm done."

Suddenly someone slid into the seat beside me, almost upending both table and bench in their rush to do so. I nearly fell straight to the floor. I protested, but not for as simple a reason as that. The strangled yelp that came out of my mouth came purely because of the two beefy arms latching onto my waist.

I recognized who it was from the bear hug alone.

_Oh, I'd forgotten about bear-boy._

"_Jule-ya_! I vas missing you vhen you did not show for meals!" Mikhail had changed very little in the short time since I'd last seen him. In fact the only difference at all was the clean, un-stained robe. It was a fact that probably was going to change, if the way he was eying the food was any decider. "Did you forget I vas to sit vith you?"

"No, not at all." It was a lie, but I wasn't about to tell him that I'd barely spared him a thought all day. Wriggling out of his arms with some effort, I shot him a look. "Is tackling going to be a common greeting with you?"

"I apologize. You vere falling."

"And catching is nowhere near the same as suffocating." Seeing Cedric's wide eyed, somewhat angry expression across from us, I remembered my manners. My mother would probably have a heart attack if she ever knew that it took me this long. "Oh right. Mikhail, this is Cedric Diggory. Cedric, this is Mikhail Poliakoff, he's one of the Durmstrang students. We met yesterday after Goldstein pulled you away."

Cedric raised a brow and a look of realization crossed his face. "Poliakoff? The Durmstrang students we escorted back to their ship were looking for someone named Poliakoff."

Mikhail looked surprised. "They vere looking for me? I had assumed they vood have vent back to ship. I vas lost for long time."

"They did, once Goldstein and I convinced them to. We were going to look for you, but your Headmaster sent an owl before we could. He said they'd found you. Did Julia help you out?" Cedric said, all the while finally moving to fill the plate before him.

Despite the food having been there for a while already, none of us had made a move towards it. I think, for the most part anyway, we'd just forgotten about it. Now though, fully reminded of our stomachs, both Mikhail and I hurried to follow Cedric's lead.

Mikhail began to inhale the food so quickly that I immediately began to understand why he had once had so many stains on his robes.

"Yeah," I said, if only because Mikhail didn't exactly look capable of speaking at the moment. "I found him wandering the halls near the Potions' classroom. That's why I was up so late actually, it took a while to get him back to his ship."

Cedric frowned briefly, and for a second I got the impression that he hadn't liked something I'd said. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Cedric's weird gloom vanished as quickly as it had come. Almost as if to distract me from asking questions, my friend was quick to aim a disarming smile my way.

Dinner continued with no more talk of the strange way I'd come to meet Mikhail. Instead, once Mikhail began to eat at paces that _didn't _rival that of a black hole, the conversation strayed to other topics. More than once Cedric would do or say something that I found odd, even more so when Mikhail tried to bring me into the conversation. Sometimes, when Mikhail told a joke and I laughed, I caught sight of that strange frown again.

It was odd and I didn't understand it whatsoever. That didn't mean I could exactly pelt him with questions about it though. No, Mikhail's stream of conversation was far too powerful for that. By the time I could get a word in edgewise, dessert was over and Dumbledore had risen from his seat.

The noise peaked with the growing excitement of the masses and then, like a light switch, the hall went silent.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision, I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber-" Dumbledore turned to gesture to a door that I'd never noticed before. "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

Cedric was not acting strange now, in fact I think whatever bothered him had practically flown out the window when Dumbledore took the stand. His eyes, once narrowed in a very slight form of irritation, were now firmly focused on the front. I knew why of course, it was the reason that so many others, even Mikhail beside me, were so equally mesmerized.

They were waiting to hear a name, preferably their own, come out of that flaming goblet.

I felt my familiar apprehension peak, just like it did yesterday when Cedric had dropped his slip into the fire. In a show that I knew was to preserve the moment, Dumbledore waved away the candle light with a flick of his wand.

In the darkness, the light of the Goblet of Fire was unusually bright.

For a second the silence seemed to grow. Everyone was watching, waiting, some not even breathing.

I checked my watch. The Goblet of Fire sparked red.

Despite my fear, despite everything that I _knew _would happen, I couldn't help but be mesmerized when a tongue of fire shot from the flames. Dumbledore reached out with a hand that seemed impossibly fast for his age. A charred slip of parchment was plucked from thin air.

"The Champion for Durmstrang," Dumbledore held the parchment so as to read it by the light of the goblet. "Will be Viktor Krum."

Mikhail deflated beside me, even while the whole hall erupted into the cheers of Quidditch fans and Durmstrang students alike. Feeling incredibly stupid for not seeing it sooner, I suddenly realized that he, like Cedric, had to have entered his name.

"Bravo, Viktor!" The loud boom that was Karkaroff didn't exactly do wonders for the Russian boy. If anything, the sound of his Headmaster made him deflate even further. "Knew you had it in you!"

From over at the Slytherin table, Krum rose and made his way up to the front. Once he was gone, the roar died down again. After another minute or two, the Goblet flared out the second slip for Dumbledore to catch.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

More cheers, though this time not accompanied by the wilting figure of our resident bear. We all, even the still strangely gloomy Mikhail, clapped politely as an insanely pretty girl rose from amongst the Ravenclaws. Just like it had done the first time, the Goblet seemed to wait until she too had disappeared before flaming up again.

And this time, because we all knew which school was next, every single Hogwarts student leaned forward in their seats. I spared a glance at Cedric. His face, so horribly excited, only settled my guilt further into my gut.

"The Hogwart's Champion," I knew Dumbledore's next words so well, I could've recited them with him. "Is Cedric Diggory!"

All it took was those words for the entirety of my table to burst into chaos.

Suddenly everyone, from the lowest firstyear and up, launched to their feet. There was shouting, stamping, and dozens of people suddenly pressing in on all sides. Cedric, dazed at first, broke into a grin so wide that I'm positive it split me in two.

He laughed, accepted the multitudes of back pats and congratulations, and stood up. Then, after yet another excited grin in my direction, he strode off towards the other room.

The applause from my table went on well after he'd left. In fact, it was a good ten minutes or so before Dumbledore could be heard at all.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore cried happily once we had settled down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real –"

Dumbledore stopped speaking then, almost as suddenly as he had blown out the candles earlier that night. Why? Because the Goblet of Fire, something that _should _have been inactive, was decidedly _not_.

We watched it sputter, just as we had for the last three times. Only now there was no excitement, only confusion.

It flared and Dumbledore caught the fourth slip just as he had done with the others. After a moment of reading, the face of our Headmaster turned grave.

There was a very long pause. And then . . .

"Harry Potter."

Everyone in the Great Hall reacted, though it was not in the loud way they had done for the other champions. There was no cheering this time, instead every head turned as one to stare down the Chosen One of Gryffindor.

Harry, completely baffled, just stared back.

Abandoning my guilt for but a moment, I allowed myself to feel bad for him. It must be hard to face down an entire school, even harder in being the only one that knew that he had done nothing to deserve it.

For the first time in a long time, I realized that Harry would definitely have his work cut out for him.

The absence of applause was beginning to be filled with an almost angry sort of buzz. The people weren't cheering, they were staring and whispering. The poor fourth year didn't move, not even when he turned ever so slightly to whisper something to his friends.

Up front, McGonagall had turned to both Bagman and Crouch almost frantically. After a moment with them, she swept over to Dumbledore. I'd never seen her look so desperate before.

"Vhat is going on?" Mikhail whispered to me in what had to be the quietest voice I'd ever heard him use. "Surely this is illegal. He is too young!"

"Look at him," I said, not truly answering as I gestured over to where he still sat. Harry looked practically glued to his chair. "He looks just as surprised as we are."

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called from the front. It seemed he and McGonagall had reached some sort of decision. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"

The boy across the hall unfroze. Almost woodenly, he got up and approached the staff table. Every pair of eyes, even those of Mikhail beside me and Kara down the table, followed him almost hungrily. The buzzing grew louder, so loud that I couldn't quite hear what Dumbledore said once Harry had grown close enough.

All I knew was that Harry, like a prisoner going to execution, disappeared into the same room that Cedric had.

And . . . just like it had done for Cedric, the sight brought me no small amount of dread.

This moment cemented Cedric's impending death, but in that it also sentenced Harry there to witness it, to have his own blood resurrect a man that had brutally murdered his parents.

I shook my head. Poor kid.


	9. Chapter 8

_**A/n: I do not own any Harry Potter copyrights.**_

The day after Halloween was . . . _bad_, to put it lightly.

No, 'bad' didn't quite cut it. 'Bad' was what you used to describe a failed date or a hard test. The day after Halloween wasn't on that level. How could it be? That day was the worst day of either of my lives.

And when you'd had two . . . well, that was saying something.

It started at Cedric's 'honor party' yesterday. The fangirls had become bolder the moment the Hufflepuff champion had stepped into the Common Room. They'd hung off him like the Yellow Badger Banner that someone had stolen from the Great Hall, fetching him drinks and laughing at jokes that even Cedric didn't find all that funny. It was disgusting, maybe even more so considering how much of a step up it was from how they'd acted before.

What happened to giggling insistently in the background? To staying just out of hearing as they worked up the guts to approach him?

_That _behavior had been something I could ignore, pity even. 'Fangirling' was a very demeaning thing to me, up until now I'd never really seen a reason to fault them for it.

Maybe that was the attitude that let me brave them every time they spawned for Breakfast, Lunch, and every between class break. I just had to put on a smile and remind myself that, whatever they were like now, they were most likely completely sane in Cedric's absence.

Sure, the smiles did grow a little thinner as the day grew on and sure, eventually I snapped. My pride lays mostly in the fact that I held out as long as I did.

"Excuse me, _what_?"

Which of course brings us to me, practically spitting in anger and staring down one of Cedric's groupies. The boy himself wasn't too far away, though it was obvious he hadn't heard what she'd said. He'd be just as mad as me otherwise.

The girl rolled her eyes and flipped her hair, both actions that became infuriating when paired with how condescending she was currently acting. "Honestly, don't you have ears? It's a wonder Cedric keeps you around at all." She ignored my gritting teeth in favor of pinning a badge onto her robes. It flashed 'Potter Stinks' out at me, I glared back.

"I _said _that you're not worth his time. Cedric's, I mean. Any _proper_ friend of his would want to show some support. And yet . . ." She gestured to the badge like it made a point.

"Oh right, and showing up the moment he becomes famous makes you a 'proper friend'."

At the sarcastic tone and bitter glare, the girl across from me bristled like a cat dropped in water.

"Why you little harpy . . ." She raised her hand, took a step forward, and looked ready to whip out her wand. At a full head taller than me, she even managed to be a tad menacing.

Or she would've been if Cedric wasn't suddenly there, standing between our raised wands with an alarmed look on his face.

"Julia," My friend turned to me, the picture of hurt confusion. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," The word was forced and almost as painful as stashing my wand back into my robes. "It's my free lesson. I'm going for a walk."

Spinning on my heel, I did just that.

Cedric didn't stop me, though he did step away from the girl when she tried to go back to him. When she stomped away as well, I considered it a bit of a win.

Taking my own advice, I tried to walk out the bitterness by prowling the dungeon corridors. I kinda wanted to sulk, or maybe brood, and I didn't want to do it in the sun filled hallways of the rest of the school. These hallways were darker and all around better for dark moods.

Eventually, when the anger had faded and I no longer wanted to try out my nastiest hexes, I slowed to a stop and leaned against the cold stone of a wall. I knew I should go back. My stomach was growling enough for it to be close to dinner and I couldn't avoid the Great Hall because of one girl.

That and I should probably go apologize to Moody. I'd been lying when I'd said I had a free lesson.

Turning back to the stairwell that would lead me back into the light, I paused again when a sound echoed towards me form further down the hall.

_Was that footsteps and . . . crying?_

Frowning, I turned again and headed off in the direction of the sound. The footsteps had stopped but the crying was still there, now fully evolved into sobs. Stopping at the door to a Girl's Bathroom, I allowed myself a moment to ponder when I'd become such a martyr before pushing my way inside.

A girl sat in the middle of the floor, tears streaming down her face as she desperately tried to lift her head. Her two front teeth were nearly touching the floor.

"Merlin's ass!" I swore rather creatively as I rushed over to the girl's side, wand already out and at the ready. "Who in the world did this to you? Wait, what am I saying? Talking'll just make it worse!" I took a deep breath, if only to control my panic long enough to get the spell right. "_Finite._"

The teeth shot up a few feet, though not nearly enough to be normal. The girl, now fully able to lift her head, smiled tentatively. Smiling back, I offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Sorry, that's the best I can do. We'll have to go to the Nurse for the rest. Are you alright?"

The younger girl looked strangely familiar now that I could see more of her face. With a good two feet of mammoth teeth still in place though, I just couldn't place where I'd seen her.

She nodded, still unable to talk, and allowed me to take the lead. With her permission, I steered us both out of the bathroom and towards the infirmary. It took us a while to get there, especially because the girl kept having to stop. I didn't rush her, she had a lot of weight on her face.

Eventually I managed to push her into Madame Pomfrey's waiting clutches and take a seat near her bed. The matron buzzed around the poor girl like a bee, fussing and shrinking teeth almost in sync. When the girl could talk enough to tell her that her teeth were normal again, the nurse ordered her to rest and fluttered into the next room.

"Thank you for helping me. With all the fuss, I'm afraid I never asked for your name."

Looking up from the Quibbler that someone had left on the bedside table, I spared the girl a chuckle. "Well it's not like I'd have understood if you'd signed it to me. I'm Julia Whitman, a Hufflepuff."

The girl smiled and I was again struck with a strong sense of Deja vu. _Where had I seen her before?_

"Oh I'm a Gryffindor. Hermione Granger, it's a pleasure."

And just like that my blood ran cold.

_Did she just say . . . Oh nononononono. What was up with this year?! I'd met what, four characters now? Did Karma just decide to throw my plans into the fire or something?!_

Blinking out of my wide eyed stupor, I took the hand that Hermione had offered well over a minute ago and smiled shakily. She looked concerned for my mental health.

"Are _you _alright? You look a bit pale."

"Do I?" I dodged effortlessly, putting my worries aside for a more believable smile. "I guess it's not every day I get to see if I really deserve my Charms score. What happened anyway?"

Hermione's face fell so quickly that I immediately felt bad for bringing it up.

"If you don't want to talk about it . . ."

"No, it's alright. I don't mind. My friends . . ." She stopped to shoot me a considering glance. "They're fighting."

"Ah," I said even as I began to get a grasp of what she was talking about. Hadn't Harry and Ron fought because Ron was mad Harry didn't put his name into the Goblet as well? "You're stuck in the middle, aren't you?"

She nodded and looked all around miserable.

Apparently I wasn't the only one having a bad day.

"And would these 'friends' of yours be Harry Potter and that Weasley boy?" At her surprised look and not to subtle glance at my tie, I let out a snort. "Oh I see now, you thought I'd go the way of the rest of my house and hate the kid for stealing Cedric's glory. Don't worry," I gestured to the absence of a badge on my chest, "I don't hate the innocent."

She blinked. "You don't . . . You think Harry is innocent?"

"Isn't he? He didn't look like a smug rule breaker when Dumbledore called him up front yesterday. If anything, he looked just as confused as the rest of us."

Nodding, Hermione looked unsure briefly before evidently deciding to give in on whatever she was unsure about. "He is, that's . . . Well, that's what Harry and Ron are arguing about. Ron thinks Harry should have put his name in as well and Harry's mad that Ron doesn't believe him." She huffed. "And of_ course _they don't plan to talk it out. That would be too mature of them."

"That frustrating, huh?" I fought back a giggle. Somehow I had never imagined Hermione to be so . . . sarcastic.

"Of course it is!" Hermione was sitting up now and, by the way she was talking, I got the feeling she was going to rant. "It doesn't help that Ron's got it into his head that Harry gets more _attention _than he does. I mean, honestly. It's not like Harry can help it."

"A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it." I quoted, thinking of a book I vaguely remembered from another life. _What had it been about again? Something about drums?_

The girl in front of me seemed to consider that for a moment. "But that's the problem, isn't it? Ron wants to be noticed and he's friends with Harry. I'm afraid he sees it as standing in Harry's shadow."

"But does he want _all _the attention?" I asked seriously. "Think about it, the publicity Harry gets is both good and bad. From what I saw yesterday, it doesn't look like Harry particularly wants it either."

Hermione nodded again but was spared from actually saying anything by the rather loud growl coming from my stomach.

"Oh right," I ran an embarrassed hand through my hair. "I guess it's time for Dinner already. I could bring you back some food if you want."

"No it's alright. And Julia?"

I paused halfway out the door and turned to look at the girl in the bed. "What is it?"

"Thank you. For helping me and for what you said. Maybe it will help."

I smiled and made an overly exaggerated mock bow. "It was my pleasure. Get better, alright?"

oOoOoOoOo

On the Saturday before the first event, Kara and I finally managed to tear Cedric away from his fangirls in order to have a Hogsmeade day with us. It was to be a strictly 'friend's' day, free of both Summers and Mikhail, two people that had somehow wormed their ways into our lives.

It was very refreshing to have the old group back, to be honest. Even if I didn't mind a few of the new additions, there definitely was something to be said about the three of us just laughing and hanging out.

Well, hanging out outside of the grueling strategy sessions anyway. There had been far too much of my time dedicated to figuring out how to keep Cedric alive through the first event.

"I'm tired." Kara whined from where she appeared on my right. Like a child, she gave the edge of my robe a pitiful tug. "Juuuuliiia. I'm tiiiiired."

"And what do you expect me to do about it? I'm not about to conjure you up a bed."

Cedric chuckled. "How about a drink then? I bet a butter beer will get you on your feet again."

"Or off it. Kara's a light weight." I supplied even as I knew that the Hogsmeade drink of choice was strongly _not _alcoholic. Well not to any species besides House Elves.

Ushered through the bar door by a chivalrous Cedric, the three of us took a somewhat awkward moment to take in just how _crowded_ the place was. No table was empty and only one had less than four people on it. The sudden onset of noise was so overwhelming that it took a few well-placed shouts before we could continue the conversation again.

"STILL THINK IT"S WORTH IT?" I hollered over the chaos as Kara tried to get Rosmerta to come our way. After a moment of frantic waving, she gave up and headed to the bar herself.

"IT'S NOT TOO BAD!" Cedric called back, actually cupping his hands around his mouth so that he could be louder. "_LOOK!_ THAT TABLE HAS ROOM!"

I looked and quite literally had to stand on my tiptoes before I could see what Cedric was talking about. Then I _did_ see it and suddenly felt the urge to smack my head into a table. Cedric was right after all, that table only had one person and a box of shiny metal badges seated at it.

And of course it was just my luck that it was Hermione Granger, the girl I'd saved from her own teeth almost a month ago.

"Let's go ask if we can join her!" Cedric had grown close enough that we didn't need to shout, unfortunately he only did this to grab my arm. Soon, I was all but being towed in the direction of the fourth year.

"Cedric _stop_! I know her!"

"You do? Well that'll just make it easi-" Right in front of Hermione's table, Cedric ground to a halt. Apparently he hadn't quite realized that we were charging straight towards a friend of _Harry Potter. _Someone who, in Cedric's mind at least, might not exactly be a fan of his.

"Can I help you?" Hermione asked politely before shooting a subtle glance at the empty seat beside her. Standing behind Cedric as I was, it didn't look like she'd noticed me yet.

"Well we . . . uh . . ." Cedric trailed off and I, with a long suffering groan, stepped out of his shadow.

"Hey there Hermione, it's been a while. Do you mind if we join you? None of the other tables have room."

"Julia!" The girl's face lit up in recognition but before she could truly smile, another glance at the chair had her frowning again. "Er . . . maybe now's not the best time."

_Was she waiting for someone?_

Kara was making her way back to us with a badly balanced tray of butterbeer, almost spilling it on the Weasley Twins and Lee Jordan as she navigated the crowd. One look and I could tell she hadn't found a table either.

Unless we wanted to drink in the streets, Hermione was our best bet.

"Please?!" I said with my best rendition of puppy eyes. "We really wouldn't be asking if we had any other option."

Hermione bit her lip and, while I'm sure she tried to stay strong, finally faltered with another guilty look at the chair. "Well . . . alright, but just for a little while."

"Thanks," Sliding in next to the seat that Hermione was saving, I pulled Cedric down across from the badge box. Kara, having finally braved the crowd, slid us our drinks and plopped down on his other side. "Oh and before I forget, this is Cedric Diggory and Kara Jafton. You've met Cedric before, right?"

Though the fourth year really didn't look comfortable in Cedric's presence, she nodded. "We took the same Port Key to the World Cup."

The table drifted into the sort of silence that only comes when no one had anything to say. Kara, being the avid gossiper that she was, decided to break it.

"Oooh," Kara had plucked a badge off the table and was now studying it intently. "What are these? S.P.E.W? What does that stand for?"

And . . . the awkwardness was gone. The small little half frowns had now been wholeheartedly replaced by a beaming smile as Hermione sat a little straighter. From the empty seat to my right, I could've _sworn _I heard someone groan.

"It stands for 'Society for the Promotion of Elven Welfare'," Hermione explained eagerly, looking for all the world like Christmas came early. "We work to bring freedom, wages and benefits to the House Elf community."

"You do? But they don't want any of that stuff." Cedric sounded a bit confused. He'd probably never met Dobby, the only House Elf to actually _want_ freedom, wages and benefits.

"How do you know?" The bushy-haired Fourth Year replied hotly. "The wizarding community has all but brainwashed them into being content with their lot in life. For all we know, they could be perfectly capable of forming their own running society. Like the Goblins do."

There was another mystery sound from the chair and I turned my head to shoot it a suspicious look. _Chairs don't snort._

"That sounds absolutely horrible." Kara had always had a soft spot for animals, or anything particularly smaller than her actually. She had picked up a lot of strays when we were kids. "I've never met an elf. I had no idea they had it so bad."

"Do you want to join us? We have plenty of badges and it only costs 2 sickles to join."

If I didn't know that Hermione had perfectly had perfectly honest intentions, I would've sworn I was watching Kara get conned.

"Really?! I would've thought it'd be much more!" Digging in her pocket, Kara exchanged two silver coins for a badge and eagerly pinned it on her chest. It looked almost eerily like the 'Potter Stinks' badges of everyone else in the building, only this one had S.P.E.W. scrawled onto it.

Hermione, writing Kara's name down on her membership list, looked like she was liable to break the quill out of sheer excitement.

"You know, I've been to the Kitch- ow!" Mid-way through my sentence, a shoe had kicked my shin. A shoe that had come from the _empty chair_. Shooting it a glare, I turned back to find Cedric looking at me worriedly.

"Julia? Are you alright?"

"No, I think there's-"

"Oh she's probably fine!" Hermione cut me off in the sort of way that just _screamed_ that she knew something. "This place is really crowded. Someone probably bumped her chair."

Yeah that made sense . . . if you could 'bump' my chair from _under _the table.

"Right . . ." I shot the chair another glare before turning back to Hermione. "You know, with all this excitement I'd forgotten to ask. How are you holding up?"

Caught off guard by the sudden change of topics, Hermione blinked. "Holding up with what?"

"With that bloody news article." If I had been angry with Cedric's fangirl, it was nothing compared to what I'd felt when that article had come out. I had known it was bad before, sure, but what I was expecting was nothing like how it was. "I heard that people have been hounding you about it."

"Oh right, the article. I'm doing alright, I guess. Though to be perfectly honest, Harry got it much worse than I did. I can just ignore them."

"And Harry can't?" I looked straight at the empty chair this time, already forming theories about who might be sitting in it.

"Skeeter did a lot of embellishing on what Harry actually said, she made up and brought up some sensitive topics. If I were Harry, I wouldn't be alright with it either. Having every student in the school remind him of them doesn't make things better."

"I can imagine." I said because I really could. As someone who had spent their whole life trying _not_ to be noticed, I could definitely understand how Harry felt in this situation. "I think I'd go crazy if it were me."

"That's what makes Harry unique, doesn't it." Surprisingly it was Cedric, not Hermione, who said this. "I mean he found the Philosopher's Stone in first year, didn't he? I wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Yeah, I think it's horrible about how everyone's being mean to him." Like I said, Kara would eternally pick up strays. If she knew what I knew, Harry probably would have been glomped by now. "I could tell right away that he didn't know his name was in the Goblet."

"You guys . . ." Hermione was smiling, not at us, but at the empty chair. Any doubts I had had about who was sitting with us were now long gone. "I'll tell him you said all that, I promise."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a certain boy disappear out the door with three red-headed brothers. Suddenly remembering something, I stood up almost at once.

"Julia?" Cedric stood up too, though it was more out of a response to me than anything else. "Do you want to leave?"

Kara, just as dutiful as Cedric, slid a tip on the table and got to her feet.

"No, well yes but not because of you Hermione." At her name, I shot the younger girl a smile. She didn't look offended, just a bit confused. "I just remembered I need to do something."

"Do what?"

"Well . . ." I bit my lip. "Do you remember that bet I made?"

Cedric frowned briefly before seeming to come to a realization. "Oh! You mean with Lee Jordan? On if I would win-" Suddenly his eyes went wide.

"My bet on if you would become the champion." I clarified smugly, ignoring how both Hermione and Kara seemed to disapprove of me betting at all. "Now that you're here, fully champion-ified . . ."

"That means we can cash in on the bet."

I smirked, leaned forward, and grabbed a handful of Cedric's shirt sleeve. "So what are we waiting for, then? I have a feeling we're not going to get that money unless we can catch him ourselves."

After a wave back in Hermione's direction and a quick returning of our mugs, Kara, Cedric and I made our way back through the crowd and out through the door. Once we were outside however, Kara hesitated.

"If you guys want to find Lee Jordan, go ahead. I'm going to find Jason."

I shrugged, knowing full well that Kara wouldn't exactly be approving of this sort of thing. "Go ahead, I'm not going to stop you. Do you want to meet back up for Dinner?"

Looking a bit surprised that we let her go so easily, Kara nodded, slowly at first but then more eagerly after it finally clicked on what she was about to do. Then, with a million thanks thrown our way, Kara dashed down the street like a dog in heat.

"I'd give it a month before they're snogging in the broom closet."

Cedric grinned, though the mention of 'snogging' and 'broom closet' together did seem to make his cheeks turn an interesting shade of pink. "Really? Summers has been talking about that girl in every practice since I introduced them."

Picking a random direction and going with it, I led us off in our search for Lee Jordan. Halfway into the first five minutes, I raised an eyebrow at my friend.

"And how does that_ lessen _the chances of snogging?"

Cedric chuckled and I spotted the telltale heads of the Weasley Twins and pulled us off in that direction. At the sight of Jordan ducking into Zonkos, I quickened our pace.

"It doesn't." Cedric was practically jogging to keep up with me now. "I'd just put the odds at two weeks. Definitely not a month."

Stopping momentarily at the store entrance, I shot Cedric a challenging smirk. _Was he saying what I thought he was saying_?

"Wanna bet?"

If anything, Cedric's grin just grew wider. "One Galleon?"

"Nah, that's boring. If I win you have to hold hands with Mikhail for a day."

Cedric's eyes widened so fast that it was hilarious. "You wouldn't . . ."

Still smiling, I made sure to give him the cheekiest wink possible. "I won't if you win."

"Fine, but if I win you have to . . ."

There was a long moment of suspense as Cedric racked his brain for something suitable. Finally he shot me a grin that was way more wicked than mine had been.

"You'll have to owe me a favor."


End file.
